Angry Birds Reunite
by Cutixemma
Summary: Matilda, the main protagonist of Angry Birds Reunite, seeks on her journey with Hal and Bubbles, as well as her past childhood and old friends, to reunite with Red's Flock, who disappeared without her. Join Matilda as she remembers and tell the stories of her past while she struggles through finding her lover, Bomb. Contains shipping and more of Angry Birds games reference.
1. Chapter 0 - Prologue

**Matilda's POV**

Hello. My name is Matilda. I am a regular chicken bird who lived in Piggy Island by the side with the Flock that I had. But that isn't all. There are... A lot of histories... histories from the mysteries or... secrets, as they say. And I actually have been... a lot of thinking about old past times... until the future comes by, predictable or not, good or bad, I am not ready to face all those events... especially to whom I am still close to.

 _That is how everything starts._

 **Narrator's POV**

It was a bright, warm summer time on the Piggy Island when the birds were spending their own time. Red brought out three caps for his unborn kids and put them in the nest. Chuck and the Blues were conversing with each other. Terence, as usual, was under the tree, alone and Bomb was getting Matilda ready to go to the beach for a time-out break.

"Hmmm, I wonder why you have to go to the beach under the sweltering heat without me, darling," said Bomb with a concerned face.

"Well," Matilda replied, "I have my own reasons. Actually not about taking a break."

Chuck overheard that, and raised his eyebrow.

"What ya mean by that?"

Matilda looked down, blushing, with her summer hat that has flowers on it sliding down onto her forehead, covering her eyes. Bomb put her hat back to where it should be whilst also looking confused.

"Umm, you see... I... wanted to relax on the sand and... reminiscing about a lot of things in the past."

A long silence ensued. All the birds were staring at her wide-eyed. Even Terence had the same expression as the surprised birds.

"Pfft... **PAST**!? That would be _tooooooo_ silly! Everyone moves on when they grow up, and you, Matilda, a mother-caring and gardening chicken, reminiscing about the PAST!?" Chuck spitted out, and then burst into laughter.

The angry white chicken felt an urge to slap Chuck. None of the birds were laughing with him. Red wondered why Chuck hadn't found it embarrassing to chuckle out so loud. Red felt that it was actually inappropriate to do so since Matilda only wanted to relax and enjoy the scenery of the beach and relive her memories.

Chuck managed to get hold of himself, but unfortunately, things took a turn for the worse.

A saddened, slightly enraged giant cardinal was looking down at a cheesy, cowardly, triangular canary, who empathised with Matilda's request for going to the beach.

"Let her be, Chuck," Terence said in a surprisingly normal, calm tone in his voice.

The Flock was in shock hearing Terence speaking like that. They used to assume that this dull-looking big cardinal was deaf and unassuming since a long time ago. This new realisation that he actually was in fact the other way round; a good listener and soft-speaker, and it was a pleasant surprise. The medium-sized cardinal, Red, was the only one not satisfied, since they talked to each other back in his childhood, and even then, his big brother doesn't talk that much.

Matilda, of course, was also shocked, but hid her emotions and stayed quiet.

Matilda thanked Terence for reprimanding Chuck for mocking her, and appreciated his understanding. Terence, in his usual brotherly way, smiled widely in acknowledgement.

The black greater antillean bullfinch, Bomb, resumed his usual countenance and addressed Terence. "So, since you've shown us your _'true self'_ , how would you like us to reward you?"

This question elicited a burst of excitement from the little eastern bluebird triplets with red eyelids.

"Hey, how about costume make-up!" One of the Blues suggested. "Or maybe skipping or even **PLAYING VOLLEYBALL**! Best time for summer, right, Mr. Terence?"

"Thank you for your offerings, boys. But I would rather relax in my usual spot."

Chuck glared at him with a jealous look. "Well, you heard what he said, kids."

The Blues nodded and respected his privacy.

Matilda let out a sigh of relief. Then, before she went off for her relaxing time, Bomb came up to her. "Dear, listen. What are you going to do when you finished your time-out?"

"Oh, I'll just go back to see what the rest of you are doing. Why?" asked Matilda.

"I was just concerned about your safety just in case there are dangers coming." Bomb clarified.

"Don't worry, Bomb-darling. I'm actually going to Hal's home. I haven't seen him for so long!" Matilda replied.

Bomb was dumbfounded by Matilda's words. He always wanted to protect Matilda since he loved her so much. But those words of hers were so unexpected that Bomb quickly snapped out of his 'dreamy' mind.

Matilda giggled at him softly. "Awww, it is very sweet of you to concern about me. It's part of people's life. Also, when I'm already off, promise me you won't go anywhere alone without the other birds. I'm concerned about your safety too."

"Alrighty, I promised. Love you, sweetheart." Bomb blushed.

"Love you, too!" Matilda nuzzled his cheek as a gesture of goodbye, and then finally went on her way.

It took 10 minutes to reach the beach where a shabby-looking van house stood. This was where Hal lived. Matilda missed Hal so much as he was very much a part of her younger past. She remembered how Hal told the Flock that he wanted to leave the group to take a break. This, however, wasn't the first time a bird left the team; Silver left the group with a similar reasoning. She wanted a normal lifestyle doing regular exercises on weekdays and practising her looping on weekends. Hockey left the group to join the Hockey Tournaments as a Hockey Player. He considered 'his dreams came true' and also moved on to normal life. Matilda knew that Hal wanted a normal life as well. When she came to see him again, he was throwing boomerangs at the palm trees while lying down on the beach chair with an umbrella to protect him from the sunlight. Hal saw Matilda walking towards him, and he felt a tingle in his spine.

"Miss Matilda?" asked the emerald toucanet, his jaw dropping. "W-why did you come back to me? I'm not part of the team anymo-"

"I'm not forcing you to be a teammate," Matilda smiled in reply. "I just come for a visit. How are you doing today, Hal?"

"Good." Hal answered happily, "Enjoying my new life alone on a white beach. I just recently visited Bubbles in his house."

Something seemed to tug at Matilda's heart.

"Bubbles? Nice to remember him again. How is he now?"

" _The same old Bubbles, with his great addiction to candy._ If you actually talking about his 'new' him, he already have what a child's life is; go to school, whines a lot, misbehave. Heh, children these days."

Matilda wondered why Red didn't catch Bubbles and have a babysitter to mind him and teach him some manners. Bubbles usually hanged out with the Blues just fine, but he wasn't monitored by someone as much as the Blues were, having Matilda taking care of them in her motherly way. If she had a chance to see Bubbles, she swore to herself that she would give him a good scolding for being alone and for tricking the treaters, scaring them out to steal their bags of candies during one Halloween night.

"Bubbles is now living at the Pigs' Town." Hal continued, "he said that it is okay to live with pigs as long as they don't mess around with him too much."

This appeased Matilda slightly and smiled upon hearing that. She wanted the birds and the pigs to live in peace, and the news that Bubbles was having fun living with them encouraged her. What a happy thought.

"Oh, and also, he's sent an SMS to me on phone. He said that he wanted to have a break and spend some time here." Hal finished.

"Wait, that is my intention too! I wanted to come here so we could all share our pasts!" Matilda exclaimed with excitement.

"That is a cool idea, Miss. He'll be here any minute now. Then we stick to your plan of remembrance. That way, we will have a happy moment to remember in the future."

" ** _I bet that!_** " A child-like voice came from a bush.

"Bubbles!?" They yelled in surprise.

It's Bubbles, an orange oriole. He had a lollipop in his beak, and laughed at their reactions, almost choking on his candy.

"I see you have a long conversation here. Hey, Mother Matilda! You have a pretty hat. And sharing our pasts? I'm a child! I'm still in a childhood age."

"That's okay, Bubbles," Hal told him, "as long as you enjoy our stories."

" **Blegh** , stories are boring! I read so many children's books that has pictures in them!" Bubbles interjected.

"Because they are not considered _"reading"_ books. Especially for the fact that they are ' **PICTURE** ' books." Hal responded.

" ** _OPPPS_**. My bad. I actually have trouble reading books with words. I read up until the end, yet I couldn't understand any meaning!"

"Children section or adult section?" Hal enquired.

"Adult section. I'm _growing up_ , you know?" Bubbles gleefully replied.

Matilda and Hal facepalmed. Bubbles really needed a at their faces, Bubbles felt ashamed of himself. After all the candy stealing and pranking, he was a misguided bird and in retrospect, he could not forgive himself for his past actions. His candy addiction was too unbearable. He made a promise that he would read the children section books the next time he went to a library.

Sensing the awkwardness and quietness around them, Hal decided to stop whatever they were doing and asked Matilda of her 'intention'. Matilda informed him of her plan, and asked Hal and Bubbles to make themselves comfortable so that she could commence her story-telling.

 _And so, the story of the past begins._


	2. Chapter 1 - Story of the Past

**Angry Birds Reunite Chapter 1 - Story of the Past**

Matilda was telling Hal and Bubbles one of her stories back then when she was in Piggy Island. She remembered the great experience travelling through the Islands with pigs guarding her and being in charge of the cruise ship, having one of the pigs to be a captain on and sailing with the help of the map.

 **In Past Times**

On Piggy Island, a young adult black bird, with a fuse on his head that have yellow tint on it, and red eyebrows, and a red bird older than him, with freckles all over his body and black eyebrows, were tasked to meet a new visitor. They were told by one of the Pigs that she would be staying and their job was to make her feel welcome. While the ship was on route to its destination, Piggy Island, these birds had a private chat on the beach.

"Terence," the black bird called, "when this _'visitor'_ comes, how would I welcome her?"

"First, introduce yourself to the foreigner. Do not forget that the visitor is a woman, so you must treat her with some respect," replied Terence with the voice of a gentleman.

"Don't worry, mate! I am very, VERY good with ladies."

Terence scoffed at his cocky attitude. He knew that he always did this to seek attention. Once, he taught one of the five children about the meaning of 'cool' personality, and had led this kid into his office for counselling. He wondered, if his working partner would ever change his behaviour. He was mulling over this still when the ship finally arrived.

Up on the ship, the pigs dressed as sailors, opened the gateway for the woman to come down to the island by stairs. Here, Terence and his working pal remarked on the unexpectedly gorgeous sight; the woman was a white chicken with light pink cheeks and light greyish-green belly. She wore red lipstick on her beak and was wearing a smooth-fabric golden hat with violet ribbon string tied around it. There was and a real red rose flower stuck together with the ribbon string on the hat, giving her a more fashionable and classy like appearance. The hat that she was wearing was blocking her eyesight and it worried the black bird a little bit.

As the chicken walked slowly down the stairs, the young greater antillean bullfinch stepped up quickly to help her so she wouldn't trip over and injure herself.

"Thank you, sir. That is very kind of you." The lady offered.

"Don't mention it, miss. My name is Bomb. It is a pleasure to meet you," Bomb complemented.

The lady got taken slightly aback by the odd name. " _Bomb_? What an... _interesting_ name you got... Uh."

Bomb scratched his head in shyness. "I was named like that because of my nature. I would rather not talk about it, so, uh..."

"Oh, how rude of me. I should have snap out of our awkwardness and move on! I am Matilda, and I am here to stay in this marvellous island. I don't know where to start, cause this **IRRITATING** hat is blocking my view!"

"Shall I take that off for you? If you don't mind, I'll go ahead."

Matilda giggled a bit. "Oh yes. This hat has been keeping my feathers warm, but now it's overheating me because of that dreadful sunlight. You better be careful when you touch it with your bare wings!"

"Of course, dear. Ironic when you said _'bare wings'_ though." Bomb helped the poor lady, putting the hat down to relieve the discomfort. Bomb became surprised right after taking off the hat, and could not really believe of what he just saw with his big eyes.

This beautiful lady, in front of the two birds, had pink eyes! They looked so pretty and bright that even Terence felt his eyes would pop out. The initial attraction that Bomb felt quickly turned into love at first sight, and Matilda felt the same when she saw the first and most handsome bird ever in her heart.

Both the birds were blushing when they realised the crush they had on each other. This was the moment of their life! They were perfect for each other. As they went down the stairs, Bomb still tried his best to not be nervous when talking to her. "Sooo... you want a tour... Ms. Matilda?"

Matilda had the same thoughts as him, as if they had shared a bond. She went on, "Certainly, Mister. Well, after the tour... um... what should I do?"

Terence came towards them when they reached the last step. "You will meet the children. They are currently staying at the clear land side where me and Bomb are conducting kindergarden school on."

Matilda was surprised to learn that they had a school on that island. She hadn't knew that when she asked the pigs on board about places in Piggy Island. Either the pigs weren't aware or they did not remember as this wasn't shown on the map.

Later on, as the tour had started, the birds had been showing Matilda places in Piggy Town. The town had a classy restaurant, food market, library, King Pig's castle and many more. The citizens of this town welcomed the tourist with a big smile on their faces, and Matilda thought that they looked creepy when they did that, but Bomb saved her by saying that their faces were natural. As the tour went on, Matilda talked more about herself and her life. Terence wasn't very interested in listening to her story, but was glad that Bomb enjoyed it. Bomb also talked about his life, as well as working with Terence ever since he was in his early 20s. But his partner would rather not converse about his past, and Bomb knew that Terence kept that as a secret.

When the tour ended, the red cardinal decided to show the new bird his school. He said that he was working as both the headmistress and the counsellor, while Bomb worked as a teacher. Matilda reminisced about her previous life where she and her old friend teamed up as teachers before she finally left her home. She missed the friend so much, but she kept her spirits up and moved on. When they reached the school, there were actually no buildings. It was just an empty space filled with short and thin grass and trees by the side. However, some spaces were taken up by the five children.

Matilda was so enlightened to meet them! She loved children and treated them like they were her own. She even commented on how adorable they were, and Bomb laughed as he knew that children WERE like that.

Terence introduced the kids to her; first he picked out the cutest bird, who looked actually very similar to him. He claimed that he was the older brother of Red and describe his energetic and happy-go-lucky personality. The little red bird went to Matilda, and Terence smiled, mentioning that he was VERY friendly, even with strangers.

Next, Matilda met the yellow triangular canary named Chuck. Terence had told her the fact that Bomb taught him how to be "the best of the birds", but much to his dismay, Chuck became an arrogant bird. Despite the bad habit of this kid, he was also well-behaved and liked to meet new people. He was close to Red and was his best friend.

The third bird was a emerald toucanet and had the longest beak among all the kids. Hal happened to be the clumsiest of them all, and he usually needed help from either of the adult birds to hold on to when walking anywhere, due to loss of balance as a result of the heavy beak he had. Nonetheless, he was very attentive with his friends and according to his principal, always hope to keep their spirits up.

Another bird was a white fluffy bird and was the tallest kid on land. He had stated his dream was to be a hockey star, thus the name Hockey. Hockey did not display a good behaviour; he had gotten into trouble for day-dreaming every Physical Education lessons, and Bomb jokingly said that he had fun during school time.

The last bird, was a grey falcon and she was the youngest and the only female bird in the group. Her classmates called her Silver. Silver was considered goofy enough to be a comedian, but because of young age, she was also shy and nervous. She tended to wear orange fluffy headphones with thin handler to represent her personality. This reminded Matilda of one of her children back on a different island, but she cut off her thoughts quickly so that Bomb and Terence would not be suspicious on what she was thinking about.

When they finished the introduction, Terence told every birds about something important.

"News, guys. Including you, Bomb's _lady_."

Matilda jumped off a bit and turn to face him. Bomb's body turned a bit red when his boss mentioned his name. He felt that Terence had let out his little secret about Matilda. Thankfully, she did not pay much attention on being called like that and stayed calm. Bomb heaved a sigh of relief.

"Anyways, this is an important message for yours truly, Mr. Terence. Now to the message. **AHEM**. I got a family relative business today. You may not know it yet, or maybe just new to it, but one of my relatives from Finland will come to visit to this very kindergarten. His name is Mr. Tony and he is my twin cousin. Uh, like 'same age' relative and I am lucky to have him. When he comes here, give him the biggest respect that you had, the same way as meeting our Ms. Matilda here. She expects you to put on your best behaviour, even if you had put in a little effort to do it. And remember _**VERY**_ clearly, that you should not mess around with him because if you do, you will be sent to my office IMMEDIATELY and my dear cousin may file out a complaint. Any questions will be submitted to my office. Have a nice day, folks."

The kids started to chat with each other in a noisy manner, just as soon as Terence left. Then, Bomb cut the noise with his speech. "Yo, kids! Mr. Bomb is here and he will bring you to Ms. Matilda. She is now officially your teacher, and she seeks to help you out in case you have some issues or... I don't know, problem solving. You hear what your counsellor says, so please keep up your good work here." As he finished telling the kids, he turned towards Matilda. " _M'lady_ , you have your chance. Be a good motherly teacher to them. Don't be very nervous, they should be!"

"Do not worry, sir Bomb. I taught my previous kids before, and I gotta tell ya', they _LOVED_ me!"

Bomb became confident listening to the words. " _Oookay_ then. You have the spotlight, miss. Any problems, I'll be here by your side, staying on the rock and watch how you teach those playful children."

As Bomb went to his standing space, Matilda faced the kids and addressed them.

"Umm... Good morning, kids! As you all know, I am Ms. Matilda. Well, you can actually call me 'Mommy' or something else, uh..."

One of the young birds, Chuck, bounced off with excitement. "YAY, we have a mommy now! Give out the awards for _'Best Mommy on Piggy Island'_!"

The other four birds stared at him unamused. Silver thought that she was better at making jokes than him. Matilda, however, took his words as a compliment, and went on.

"As what I usually do, uh... How about I teach you about being talented?"

All the children smiled widely on hearing that. They had gotten very interested on showing their natural talent as well as impressing people.

"Wow, that's a great idea! We never had a teacher that teaches about talent?" Red exclaimed excitedly.

"Nobody but us," Hockey answered. "This is going to be the best day of my life! I don't have to dream too much of being a star. Let's see how our talents are made of! Who's with me?"

All birds kept saying yes endlessly. Silver was very enthusiastic, Hal could not keep himself from hopping up and down without falling and Red and Chuck held each other and spinned each other like one of the traditional children game. Bomb, looking at the delighted kids, was proud of them and appreciated Matilda for her efforts to finally make them happy and she blushed when she saw him winking at her.

As time went by, during break time, the children were playing around the land. Matilda and Bomb focused on Silver and Hockey eating their lunch. They had waffles filled with strawberry jam, together as soon as Red and Hal approached them for permission to start painting.

"Mommy and Mr. Bomb, can I get a brush and purple paint, please?" They asked the teachers.

"Right there," Bomb pointed at the paint brush and a paint can that contained purple paint near Terence's office. "I will open the can lid for you."

Red and Hal thanked Bomb for the permission and followed him to get what they wanted. As soon as Bomb left Matilda unaccompanied, she came up to the other two kids.

"How is it going between the two of you? Enjoying your lunch?"

"Good, mommy," replied Silver. "Mr. Bomb is a skilled chef. He sure knows how to cook great food for us, unlike those usual school cafeterias. Hey, you look hungry. Here, have my waffle." She offered Matilda her bitten lunch.

"These waffles are great!" Hockey exclaimed with joy. "Strawberry jam-filled are my favourite. _Nothing beats the strawberry jam-filled waffles!_ "

Matilda rejected Silver's offers, saying that she was feeling fully. Bomb, holding the paint can already lidless, returned with Red and Hal on his back five minutes later. Matilda found it weird to not smell an odour from the paint and wondered why. Hal asked Bomb if he could hold the paint can all by himself. Bomb, despite knowing that Hal still had loss of balance, gave him a heavy-weighting paint can in response. As Red and Hal ran towards the tallest tree, where Chuck was chilling under the shades, to paint on it, Matilda was worried about their safety.

 **End of Chapter 1.**


	3. Chapter 2 - Tragedy

**Angry Birds Reunite Chapter 2 - Tragedy**

 **Present Time**

Matilda fainted all of a sudden after telling the story for a while. Hal and Bubbles stood up from their positions and came to see if this adult chicken was okay. Hal assumed that she just went into memory trauma, frowning at Bubbles.

"Hal, how are we supposed to continue with the story if Mommy Matilda is down? I mean, I can take over to help, but I'm not even involved in that past!"

Hal replied, "Let her rest on the sandy surface. She might just get a heart attack for some reason."

"I can't let her rest on that space! The sand is rusty and the water tide can drown her! We need to move her to somewhere safe right now," Bubbles reminded.

Hal was impressed by Bubbles' could such a young child like Bubbles, who is younger than the Blues triplets that are about the age of 10, have a brilliant mind that led him into seeing possible dangers? It really looked extraordinary to Hal, as he had never met clever kids before. Sure, he pranked his teammates by stealing candy back during Halloween night, but it does prove that this orange oriole have a positive side as well. Just as Hal was thinking about this hidden side of Bubbles, Bubbles looked at Hal and pushed him by 'inflating' himself, thus snapping Hal out of his daydream-like state.

"Now is not the time to day-dream, day-dreamer! This is serious and I don't want Mommy Matilda to burn to death!"

"Alright, on it!" Hal saluted.

Hal and Bubbles carried the unconscious lady from the sand ground to a beach chair with an umbrella. Bubbles repositioned the umbrella so that it blocked sunlight from Matilda's body while Hal sweeped off dust and sand soil from her face to make sure she was clean and fresh.

"Bubbles... We're done." Hal panted. "Now what?"

Bubbles hadn't had the slightest idea on what to do. "I...don't know what to do, actually. I just tried to help Matilda by putting her under shade, but I can't do the story-telling."

Hal had a brilliant idea. "Maybe we should meet Red's Flock. That way, they can help heal her in no time. C'mon, Bubbles! We have to get there!"

Bubbles didn't agree with his idea. "First of all, it's SUMMER! It's **hot** outdoors. Secondly, how long can we get there under the sun? Lastly, we don't know where they are staying or even living now! It's been so long since we saw them, Hal, and you _know_ it! You already decided to leave the group for stupid reasons! I had my own reasons to be in Piggy Town, and now I realised that I was addicted to candy. _**ADDICTED TO CANDY**_!"

"Calm down, Bubbles," Hal tried to stop him," you're letting your temper get the better of you." But Hal could see Bubbles' eyes flowing with tears.

"It was all your fault this happened! The Flock wasn't the same _without you_! Look at Mother Matilda! She's like a corpse on a dirty ground. I came to you because I cared about you, and I wouldn't leave my friends alone. I may be candyholic, but I'm also normal, just like you and the other birds. I can make the best of my choices, but also the worst as well. Sometimes, it takes a longer time to realise mistakes and I know how it feels. I am both angry and not angry now. And you should be too now. Now, decide your choices, before the situation worsens."

Hal wasn't very sure what to do now. He could see in Bubbles' eyes that he didn't want to do that, but the fact was they needed help so he still might need to find Red's Flock. He then looked at Matilda one more time. Matilda's face was emotionless, but Hal could still tell that she was in trauma and needed the help. It was time for decision, Hal thought. Whether he could go to the Flock and make them and poor Bubbles disappointed with him or go back to Matilda and do something to help her regain consciousness.

Then something happened, right in front of both Bubbles' and Hal's eyes. A ray of light shined on Matilda's footsteps for unknown reasons. They both weren't sure how that happened, but nevertheless they able to see the footsteps. Then Hal made his choice.

"The footsteps could lead to where Matilda was originally located. May not be the best choice, but I'll go follow them to meet the birds again."

Bubbles sighed in relief. "Okay, Hal. You had your decision. Now let's go there," his voice tone deepened.

As Hal and Bubbles followed the trails of footsteps, Matilda's subconsciousness actually sparked to life. It wasn't really considered a memory trauma, but just reminiscing. Deep in her mind, she remembered something. Something terrifying. Something creepy. Something...supernatural.

 **Past Time**

Young Matilda was looking at Red and Hal running to the tall tree in the distance. Bomb looked at her frowned lips, but left her to her thoughts, since she told him that she had taught kids at her time before. She had a sinking feeling that bad things might happen there.

At the side of the tree, Chuck saw his two friends racing straight to the tree with Hal carrying the paint can. "Heya Hal! Whatya' got there?"

"Can of purple paint," Hal replied to Chuck happily. "I wanted to use this to draw some things on this tree."

"I would love to join in, but I have to relax here thinking about Mommy over there."

Red questioned him with a poker face. "You like her as a mother or...a _girlfriend_?"

Chuck's calm mood escalated into an eruption. " _ **HEY! I DON'T LOVE MOTHERS AS GIRLFRIENDS, OKAY!?**_ "

"Do you not know the concept of jokes? _Bleh_ , you _really_ are a funny guy."

Chuck's cheeks turned light red. His head was already boiling.

"Red, leave him alone. He wanted to relax, remember? And what about drawing on tree? I was about to do it with you." Hal reminded him.

Chuck sneered at them. "Do what you want! Just don't mess with my yellow feathers. Yellow is my favourite colour and I don't like them being painted by that lavender paint!"

Red laughed at his best friend for being so careful with his feather. Dirt on feather and he was fine. Paint on feather and he got worried. What was wrong with his mind? Plus, he and Chuck never fought before so he guessed that it was the first time since they had a new teacher and then Chuck messed up with a failed joke. Hal had gotten impatient with Red's thoughts and asked him to draw with him.

As they were drawing on the stem using paint, they both became bored. It was only past a minute, but it was too dark to see their purple painted drawing on the stem as they were at the undergrowth layer of the tree. Chuck, who had finally calmed himself down, asked them if they wanted something. Hal told him that he was feeling bored and could not really see the drawing, as the paint wasn't luminous at all.

"Guys, how about going up on the tree? I'll help you climb up the tree."

The two kids burst with excitement, ignoring the safety rules. They knew that Chuck could hop them up onto the tree branch with his cone head, so they buckled up on his head before he was ready to do so. " _ **Hop, HOP AND AWAY!**_ " The two kids successfully landed on a thick tree branch and not a single liquid from the paint can spilled out fortunately. Red and Hal were amazed at how high they were now; the tree was about 10 metres long and the view was really small when they looked around near to far. They became really excited when they could see Piggy Town from about 3.5 km in the distance and also the ocean which was from really, REALLY far away from the town. The blue sky above the town was beautiful, with white clouds floating by slowly.

Hal looked down to Chuck. "Hey, the light shines at this point. I can finally draw on it with my paint can!"

As they were about to paint on the lighted stem with a paint brush, Red heard a yell from a far distance, but couldn't make up what he just heard.

The yell was coming from a horrified Matilda, running across the field towards the tree, pulling Bomb with her. " _ **HAL, NO! YOU'RE GONNA DROP THAT PAINT CAN**_!" Bomb kept apologising to her for letting them use the paint can, but she was still focusing on the kids on the tree branch whilst screaming at them as loudly as was possible.

Chuck did not pay attention to her shoutings. He was still looking up at Hal and Red attempting to paint on the stem. "You're doing great, guys! I'm proud of you for being _WAY_ up high."

As Matilda was getting closer, she noticed Hal's unsure movements. Telling Bomb that Hal's body shook, Bomb was immediately frightened, knowing that Hal had lost his balance "Oh shoot! He's about to lose balance! The paint can's gonna fall off his grip!"

"What's even worse is that our little Chuck was there! He cannot see the problem from where he is! We have to quickly warn him before the paint can drop onto his lively body!"

Red also noticed Hal's loss of balance. As the voices of Matilda and Bomb reached Red's non-visible ears, he tried to alert Chuck. Chuck, being unable to hear his voice from long distance, was very confused and could not made up of what he was saying.

And then, it was already too late. Hal lost his balance suddenly and inadvertently released the can filled with purple paint. Both the can and Hal fell off from the branch, leaving poor Red alone. Red was scared and cried for help. He was in tears. As Hal landed onto the ground, he injured his long beak from the impact. Chuck still was not aware of the trouble, until the can landed onto his head.

Matilda and Bomb arrived, and was shocked to find a very hurt Hal with a broken beak, Red was crying on the branch looking traumatised and Chuck was standing alone motionless. What they saw on Chuck gave both of them chills down the spine. It was such a scary sight. Chuck had purple paint dripping from head to bottom. The paint was covering most of the yellow feathers lavender and Chuck was ashen-faced. He looked very wide-eyed. He really, really, really looked scary. When Matilda took the can off very slowly, his black feathered hairstyle was also covered in purple paint.

Chuck twisted his head to look at Matilda and Bomb, ended up making them jumped in horror. He didn't asked them how he looked. He knew that the paint covered his whole body. He opened his beak wide open and talked in a terrified voice.

" _Am I a purple monster?_ "

Chuck shook in terror. Bomb knew he was about to panic. But something even unexpected and scarier happened.

His body started shaking **more violently** than before. It looked like a seizure than rather than a panic attack. Matilda had never been so shocked in her life and she could now see Bomb turning more red in his black body. She knew Bomb's nature now; this bird could explode like an actual bomb. Just as realisation hit her head, Matilda shouted at him to not explode, but Bomb stated that he was feeling way too emotional, thus the color change. But Matilda told him not to anyway and calmed his emotions. Bomb tried very hard not to explode, and finally, he succeeded.

While they were looking at the fast-panicking purple-yellow canary, they heard the stompings. It was counsellor Terence, and his cousin from Finland, Tony. Both Terence and Tony looked similar in appearance, but the only difference between them was that Tony was light blue instead of red and with more fluffy details along his bodylines. Terence had the same reaction as Matilda and Bomb when he saw Chuck in that state.

"What is the meaning of this!? Panicking Chuck, injured Hal and my little brother sobbing alone on a twig of a tall tree on Family Relative Day!? Explain yourselves!"

Red could hear his brother's loud-booming voice, and tried to respond to him. "Big brother..." he mumbled, "..help me..." Red still had tears in his big eyes and could not bear his fear on the branch, holding on a paint brush and thinking that the branch might break off soon.

Hal tried to catch the adult's attention listen to him, but his beak was stucked in the ground injured, rendering him unable to speak.

It was a surprise that it was the first time that Tony met little Red. He was also his little cousin so he felt bad and took pity on him.

Bomb owned up. "I was the one who caused this terrible moment to happen. My failure the dangers..."

"It wasn't Mr. Bomb's fault. It was our fault." Red wiped his tears a little bit. "Chuck shared an idea to get up on the tree branch and we ignored the safety that you reminded us, big brother. I accepted the idea so I _SHOULD_ own up!" He finished his speech, then started crying again.

Terence felt that he could not scold Chuck this time, not even an injured bird and his little brother. These three birds were all in troubled and in a traumatised state and he couldn't do anything with it. Now he found it difficult to deal with the bird that was covered in paint.

Tony wasn't sure what he should say now. He did promise his cousin that he would file a complain if trouble happened, but this looked like it had gone beyond trouble. It was rather sad and tragic to see the poor children. Tony decided to start with the kids,helping them first. He pulled Hal's stiff body out of the crate from the ground, only to find out that half of his beak was bent, giving him a gruesome look. Hal expressed his gratitude with a little smile and thanked Tony for carrying him to a resting place.

Terence did the same as Tony; he had to find a way to help little Red down from the high tree. He saw that punching the tree trunk to bring it down was an easy option, but changed his mind as he opposed deforestation, so he had to find another way. There wasn't any ladder around the area that could reach up to the tree of that height and Terence would need to go to Piggy Town to buy one. But since it would take a longer time to save Red, Terence rejected the idea as well. Now due to difficult choices, he couldn't really find the solution to help get Red down. He knew both choices could make him cry forever, but he didn't want to upset his as his little brother. Finally, Terence broke down on seeing no other way to save his little sibling on a special day.

However, in spite of all the chaos of everyone's mixed feelings, Matilda never gave up. She asked him to choose only one of the decisions that he previously made. He would worry about Red the most, but she had to worry about Chuck. Chuck was still unconsollable and the counsellor had to do something to prevent him from getting panic. Matilda then asked Terence if he had sleeping pills with him. Terence nodded in response, and told Tony to stay there whilst Terence got the pills from the office.

Tony stared at Matilda with a similar attraction as Bomb due to her pink eyes that looked so vibrant. Seeing the medium-sized blue fluffy cardinal like that, Matilda backed away from him and went to little Hal to check if he was okay. "Hal, I'm _truly_ sorry that this happened to both you and your friend on the tree," she apologised.

But Matilda could not understand Hal's muffled reply, which made Bomb even more ashamed of himself. Bomb could explode if he felt strong sadness, but he still had Matilda's words in mind. He did not really want to upset her by his actions.

Matilda saw Bomb's looking sad and calmed him down. "Bomb, it isn't your fault. You just didn't know."

"But lady," Bomb insisted,"I really did cause this tragedy! Hal's beak got badly damaged and Chuck went into seizure attack, _all because of me_! I'm to be blamed."

Matilda looked at him earnestly. "Bomb, everyone make mistakes and so did you. Nobody is perfect. So you gave Hal the paint can. It may be unforgivable to you, but I forgive you for your actions. Because I care about you, and I want to help you."

Bomb became touched by Matilda's speech. Nobody had told him that before. How could Terence not tell him as a close friend? Matilda told him this and they had only just met. He thought that they really were meant to be together. So Bomb got up to her in a confident manner and told her that he would try his best to help out with whatever they needed.

While Bomb checked on Hal, Matilda heard sobs again above her. Red was still in tears out of fear and sadness. "Don't worry, my little Red!" Matilda called out. "Your big brother will try to rescue you if he can."

Red still couldn't bear his emotions at all. He felt like he wasn't really protected at all. He still felt that he was a baby compared to the others despite being mature usually. Now he was getting too impatient to wait. Suddenly, he felt steam inside his body. Inside his head, the raining thunder storms disappeared into a bucket of lava. Feeling his new emotion triggering, he shouted into eruption. His rage was so strong that he could break down the tree branch and landed onto the ground without getting hurt or even so, aware of what he had done.

Matilda went into a state of shock seeing Red transforming into an enraged bird. Terence was wrong with the description now that this little red cardinal just snapped out of his happy self. Fortunately, Red became his usual self when the anger dissipated, and was confused at what he just did but at the same time, overjoyed with the fact that he was already on the ground.

Bomb and Hal looked confused at how Red rescued himself without any physical damage on his bottom. Tony was not surprised as he knew Red had the same capability to do that. This capability ran in the family. When Terence came back with sleeping pills, he was overjoyed to see Red back on the ground. He had the same knowledge as Tony about family heritage. Red noticed Terence, and cried again as he ran to his big brother.

"Big brother best friend forever! I am so sorry for going onto a tall tree. It looked dangerous to me now. I won't ever do it again..." Red promised.

But Terence ignored his confession. "I'm not disappointed and angry with you. I'm _proud_ of you."

" **WHAT!?** But I caused this to happened!" Red insisted in surprise.

"I'm not referring to what just happened here. What's more important now is you, my little brother. You just _unleashed_ your special capability to save _yourself_. That's the reason you're already down from the tree."

" _ **RED UNLEASHED!**_ " An unexpected female voice interrupted the conversation.

Everybody, except Chuck, looked at Silver and Hockey, who just arrived.

"Heh heh," Silver chuckled, "Sorry! I have to make a reference."

"Nice try, Silver," Red sneered, "I know that reference and I gotta tell you, it's the worst game I had ever seen."

"Hmph! Look who's jealous!" Silver grunted. "Besides, it's really no use to state a good game like that."

Red argued her back. " _ **WHO REALLY LIKES A GAME ABOUT WEREWOLVES!?**_ "

Terence sighed on the possibilities if Red used his anger inappropriately, and left the argument to themselves and went back to business.

Hockey asked Terence how this happened, but at this time, he replied, "You know how it happened sooner or later. Right now, we have to help your classmate, Chuck. He is in serious state of panic and seizure."

Hockey did not understand what these meant, but left that as an unimportant thing. Hockey then asked if he could help Hal or not. Matilda told Hockey that big adults were only there to help him and there was nothing Hockey could do. Hockey became disappointed over the fact that he wasn't being used as one of the helpers. But he didn't want to come back to Red and Silver either, as they were fighting each other over just a simple thing.

As Hockey returned to where he came from, Matilda discussed the plan with Bomb,Terence and Tony on ways to help Hal and Chuck while Silver and Red were kept away in distance from them so that they won't eavesdrop the conversation.

"Okay, birds. Not only I brought a sleeping pill here for Chuck, but I also have a bandage for Hal's broken beak. If it's not that effective, I will get medicine from either Piggy Town or the plants from the garden side. Now what are you going to do with Chuck once I put him into a deep sleep?" Terence asked Bomb.

Bomb answered, "I'll buy the black and yellow paint from one of the stores from Piggy Town with Matilda and Tony by my side."

" _Certainly not!_ " Matilda disagreed. "Paints have smelly odour and can also ruin the natural feathers of his, even if he's already turned into a lavender bird!"

" **Objection!** " Tony shouted. "There is a _clear contradiction_ in your words, Lady Chicken. As we all know, I have been here a year ago, and I swore that the paint in one of the stores actually came from natural flowering plants taken from different islands. Therefore, they are not a threat to bird feathers like the yellow canary's!"

"I agree with my cousin's objection to your proposal, Matilda. The paint is also odourless as the pigs use natural perfume in it so that it won't stink too much." Terence said.

Matilda was taken aback with the information. No wonder the paint from the can that Hal carried didn't smell bad.

"I'm new to Piggy Island. Excuse my misunderstanding." Matilda apologised.

"Anyways, we agree with Bomb's plan. Now let's get going with your plan while I take care of the safety of the children in this area. _Ugh_ , the argument between Silver and my little brother is so unbearably irrelevant here." Terence finished.

 **End of Chapter 2.**


	4. Chapter 3 - A Special Child (Part 1)

**Angry Birds Reunite Chapter 3 - A Special Child (Part 1)**

 **Present Time**

Hal and Bubbles were still following the footsteps through the long distance. They were sweating drip tips on their head under the sun. Bubbles tried to suck in his lollipop to keep him up but realised that it doesn't effectively work on the exercise.

"Gosh, I hate the sun... We left Matilda alone at my home and now we're just following the pathway for NOTHING!" Hal whined.

"This is why you shouldn't see Red and the Flock at this time. Grrr, this _stupid_ lollipop won't WORK on me!" Bubbles complained.

"Quit arguing, Bubbles! We're exercising! That's nothing wrong with that. And besides, candies have less nutrients and can make you fat. I eat fresh meat for healthy diet." said Hal.

"The only thing I can argue about the diet is that _WE CAN'T EAT VEGETABLES_!" Bubbles yelled.

"Some birds like Matilda can eat plants, which are vegetables. Besides, the only thing you eat is candy food, and they are junk food." Hal told him in a friendly tone.

But Bubbles still fight him back anyway. " _ **HEY, I CAN'T TAKE CARE OF MY ADDICTION, OKAY!?**_ "

Hal pretended that he never hear it. "Wow, you're as angry as a mentally challenged person."

" _Heeelllloo_! Hal, there are mentally challenged people out there and you can't compare a sensitive one to the one with a mental disorder." Bubbles said in disappointment.

"Alright, alright. I'm sorry, I guessed I must be too sensitive to talk about people then." Hal said.

The toucanet and the oriole finally stopped their noise level to silence. Both of them thought that it was only best if they just zip their beak and move on. Then, as they were still walking on the track, meanwhile the unconditional Matilda was still in past reminiscence.

 **Past Time**

Young Matilda agreed on Bomb's plan about going to buy the black and yellow paint cans from one of the shops in Piggy Island. Before they were ready to go off on their plan, the birds had something to do on their own.

Terence came back to see how Red and Silver are doing. They still happened to be in a fight. Terence cut in between them and said, "Okay, stop what you both are doing. Silver, stop goofing around and do anything that catch the attention. And little brother, control your anger and don't take her joke on you seriously. Your two friends need some medical treatment so give them some respect. Cause if you do so, you will _GET IT_ from me. Understand?"

"Yes, Mr. Terence. And I'm sorry for violating the scene," Silver apologised, "it really is such a scary moment to happen on poor Hal and Chuck."

As Silver walked away from the area, Red still stays by Terence's side. "Umm, can I follow with big cousin, please?"

Terence accepted his permission. "Remember, little brother, do not mess around during the journey and leave the adults to their task."

Red always remember to keep his own promise to not upset his elder brother. Then, when he looked at his friend under quick panic, he felt sorry and had pity in him. "Please be okay, best friend. I'm sorry if I messed up your bright color."

Tony saw Red coming directly towards him and smiled when he looked up at him. "Nice to meet you, little bird. What is your name, may I ask?"

"Red." He delightfully answered.

"Red, I am very happy to have you as my little cousin as much as I have your big brother as my twin cousin." Tony told Red in a brotherly way.

"Big cousin, you're very much like my big brother. You can be my big cousin best friend forever," said Red.

Tony laughed softly on hearing that. "Of course! Your big brother is very close as much as you are. We will have a good family bondage together."

Red was taken up by happiness and surprise. " _REALLY_!? You meant it?"

"Absolutely," Terence said, "we're together as a family. But not now. I have to wrap around Hal's damaged beak with a bandage and put Chuck to deep sleep. Although that furry white bird isn't needed for help."

"I'M NOT FURRY, I'M FLUFFY!" shouted Hockey, "Oh, and it's not fair to say that, Headmistress."

"That's headmaster to you." Terence corrected Hockey. "Women being 'headmaster' are considered 'headmistress', so you should addressed me right."

Hockey looked ashamed of his mistakes. "Sorry, headmaster."

Meanwhile, Matilda and Bomb saw Tony and Red together, then went into a private chat.

"Bomb, umm... Can I tell you something?" Matilda asked quietly.

"Sure, go ahead," Bomb whispered back. "I'm all ears."

"Good," Matilda sighed in relief. "Have you seen how Tony and Red went with each other as ' _family bonding_ '?"

Bomb replied, "Yes, they look adorable and nice together. Gay, huh?"

"Eww, I _hated_ that word." Matilda said in disgust.

Bomb chuckled at her reaction. "No, it means "cheerful and merry". Read the dictionary, Matilda lady."

Matilda blushed on not knowing a cleaner meaning of that word. "Anyways, I wanted to share this with you, like bonding."

Bomb got taken with the look on her face. "You want to bond with me, miss?"

"Yes, Bomb sir. Well, what do you like about me?" Matilda questioned him.

Bomb was slightly anxious on trying to reply her question. He might possibly reveal his feelings for his dear Matilda, but hid them as much as possible. He then looked around to make sure no one is staring at him with a glare and everything seems fine to him so he let out his words out of his beak.

"Umm, I like how kind-hearted and caring you are... you're kinda actually better than Terence..." Bomb nervously described to Matilda. Bomb checked back to see if Terence heard that. Terence was just watching Hockey and Silver patting on Hal's newly bandaged beak. That was a close call.

"Okay, I think we have enough conversation for now." Matilda said. "We better get ready for your plan, Bomb. Tony-sir, are you ready?"

Tony was already prepared, with little Red on his back. "Ready to you, miss... Maria, your name?"

"Matilda is my name." She corrected Tony. "I know we don't talk to each other much, but we have to go to Piggy Town, for the sakes of the Mighty Eagle!"

"Yo, _M'lady_!" Bomb interrupted. "How did you know the Mighty Eagle?"

Matilda replied while in impatience. "I learned history from a good friend of mine."

Terence looked at them with concern. "Are you going off to Piggy Town or wasting your time with chit-chats?"

"Apologies for time-wasting, cousin twin." Tony said, feeling ashamed for being noticed. "I just wanted to know Ms. Matilda's name, that's all."

Terence smiled in acknowledgement. "That's good, because you're getting to know her better. But now it is time to buy the fresh paint cans. Bomb, lead the way to the store. And Matilda, you're a good mother to the children. So please take care of my little Red just in case Tony is feeling exhausted."

Matilda promised Terence for his words. Then, as they went off to a long distance, Red hopped up and down on Tony's head to say goodbye to his big brother. Hockey does the same gesture, but Silver looked away from him. Tony knew that her action of doing this was a result from a silly argument of her and Red. Luckily, Red ignored the fact about Silver and have fun being with his first-met big cousin.

During the journey, Matilda looked around the orange sky and the sunset, and enjoyed the scenery as she walked along with Bomb. Bomb just started his conversation to her again. "So, how much have you know about _the Mighty Eagle_?"

"I read that he was part of the legends and folklores. My dear owl friend told me that he was like a hero from cover stories." Matilda explained.

"You are very lucky here!" Bomb exclaimed excitedly. "Mighty Eagle is still alive. He lives in a big cave from somewhere right in one of the locations on Piggy Island. My students are very scared to go into that cave, especially Red. Poor Red told me that he doesn't like _big giants_!"

Matilda laughed softly to keep herself from getting Red to hear her. She then went into surprise. "He is ALIVE!? He was in stories told from thousands of years ago. How could he live like that?"

"There are still mysteries to be solved," Bomb said. Matilda stopped the conversation as they reached the town filled with smiling pigs who saw Matilda again.

After conversing with Bomb, Matilda went to talk to Tony, who was swinging his little cousin around him and then paused himself as he saw the chicken.

"Hello there, Matilda lady." Tony greeted politely. "What brings you here this time?"

Matilda kindly smiled at his friendly talk. "I'm here to get to know more about you. So you have been here a year ago?"

Tony replied truthfully, "Yes. When I came to this Piggy Island for the first time, they were just working in one of the fast-food restaurants. I barely knew about Terence's assistant though."

Matilda nodded in acknowledgement. "So they used to work there, huh?"

"I did not know that my cousin and his working partner already started up with a school when Terence sent me a foreign letter. I never had a chance to meet the children, especially for my little cousin, Red. He is a joy of the relatives, so here I am. Very excited to play with him."

Red, on top of Tony's head, still act energetic as ever. "Mr. Tony have the fluffiest feathers I ever felt! So unique to be blue rather than the usual red. If I lived in Finland, I will surely be the coolest blue bird ever lived!"

Both Matilda and Tony laughed. "Oh, little Red!" Tony said with a sense of humor. "You won't necessarily be blue if you wanted to live there! We birds are born in natural habitat. I was born in a cold place, that's why I'm fluffy blue."

"That's right, Red." Matilda agreed. "You don't depend on your own appearance. You have your big brother Terence, who looked JUST like you, and you should be happy for where you stay."

Red loosen up his enlightened side a bit. "Okie dokey, mommy. I'll go dream about my adventures then."

As they went to the arrival of the Paint store, they step inside the store that contains a LOT of colorful paints on shelfs and the Pig, wearing a blue cap, was at the cashier stand straight from a distance of the Enter door. Red was very amazed by such vibrant view, and burst into excitement. He went to Tony to ask for fun, but Tony declined by saying that he might knock over paint cans, so he told Red to behave himself inside the store.

Bomb and Matilda walked to the cashier stand, and they asked if the store got the black and yellow paint cans that fit the colours of Chuck.

"Smell nice or smell gross?" The cashier asked the birds with a stupid question.

Bomb and Matilda looked dumb-faced on hearing a question like that. Bomb secretly knew about the pigs' nature, but didn't tell Matilda about it anyway.

"Smell nice." Bomb answered, with his face that stayed in a strange-looking.

The pig brought out black and yellow cans that were labeled to have good perfume. He opened the lids to tested out the smell, which became too strong on the scent. Tony, behind the two birds from distance, could not resist how pleasant the smell was. Matilda said that they smelled like flowers, which was too unusual for paint cans.

"10 dollar coins, please?" The cashier asked for money.

Bomb actually had no coins with him. Not even Red. Tony specified that he had Finland money that might not fit in the currency. Matilda brought out her 10 dollar coins that were the currency of a different island, and they looked shinier than the coins used for Piggy Island. The pig looked wide-eyed and took her coins without a change. Bomb let out a sigh of relief, and took the bought paint cans with him and left the store with Matilda, Tony and Red.

As they came back to the kindergarden, everything seemed normal, with Silver, Hockey and Hal hanging out with each other. Bomb told Red to go back to the children, but Red refused by replying that he would stick with his cousin. "Let him be, Bomb." Tony said in a calm and happy mood. "We got a lot of time for relative hang-out."

When Bomb and Matilda came into the medical room from the already builded office, they could see Chuck being strapped on the bondage bed while in deep sleep, and Terence checking the consciousness. Terence noticed that they arrived in time, and smiled. "So you got everything in plan, Bomb?"

"Yes," Bomb assured him. "We double-checked the colours of the paint and perfume labelling. Everything is going in plan."

"Great! Now leave me here to paint on Chuck's body while the rest of you have to stay outside."

"No." Bomb rejected. "I rather we do the other way."

Matilda became speechless on hearing that. Why would she stay with Bomb in this room and leave the school headmaster outside?

Terence looked at him in a wide-eyed face. "Ooookay then. You got my job...while I check on my relatives."

Then, as Terence left the exit, Bomb walked to Matilda in a nervous mood. Very unusual. Matilda actually noticed his feelings, and concluded, "Bomb, are you falling in love with me?"

Bomb snapped out of himself. "WHAT!? How did you know?"

Matilda replied sincerely, "I know it by my heart. You wanted to make me smile despite your struggles for your actions. You even came up to me to see if I'm okay or not. You may not believe it, but I loved you too, not only because of your positive side, but because I can see that you are putting in a lot of effort for your love, and that is a perfect example of loving someone."

Bomb was even more surprised by Matilda's understanding. He realised that he and Matilda loved each other. "So...what am I supposed to do with you now that we revealed our attraction to each other?"

"This is not the right time to start a romantic date." Matilda told him in a stern mood. "This is still my first day of being in Piggy Island, so maybe you can start that off days later."

Bomb again came back to reality. "Oh, right. We have to put Chuck's colour back."

So Bomb and Matilda came to Chuck to paint body on him to get his real colours back. Step by step, Bomb carefully paint on Chuck's top feathers black without messing up. Matilda helped him by painting on lavender paint with yellow paint. The yellow paint now close resembles the actual colour of Chuck, only a little bit lighter. Nonetheless, the plan worked really well. Finally, they finished body-painting on Chuck, and hoped that when Chuck woke up, he would stop having to worry about his lavender colour.

As they went out of the room carrying Chuck's resting body, they could see Terence smiling at Tony and Red having their play. Then, the shining sun already disappeared as the sky turned dark. Terence said in a rushed mood, "Alright, people, let's go back to the hotel. Since Miss Matilda is a new bird in Piggy Island, I supposed I can let her stay in either my room or Bomb's room."

Bomb could felt himself bouncing in excitement, while Matilda was, once again, surprised of Terence's revealing of them living in a hotel. Terence knew why Matilda always felt like this, so he left Matilda's thoughts to themselves.

The paint was almost sticking on Matilda and Bomb's head like a glue as they hurriedly ran to Piggy Town's hotel. The hotel looked like a 5-star hotel, and for some reasons, the headmaster could had paid the bill for a thousand, considering how expensive it was. But then again, Terence had his own secrets.

Fortunately, Bomb brought Matilda's luggage as they arrived to the room that he occupied. The room looked well-decorated, but Matilda wanted to enhanced it with her belongings that she had with in her old home. After she finished decorating the room, she went to the bedroom, but sadly, the room had a Queen-sized bed. How was she supposed to sleep with Bomb beside her?

Bomb blushed too dark on thinking that she might possibly sleep near him while putting Chuck on a comfortable soft sofa. Bomb tried to tell Matilda about what he was thinking when Chuck suddenly got awaken from a shine of light facing towards him directly. The teachers jumped in shock to see a newly yellow canary getting his consciousness again. Chuck blinked his eyes in confusion without saying any words. As his eyes targeted to Matilda's face, he immediately ran to her in a speed of sound. Bomb got yet another shock on seeing Chuck running fast, assuming that the seizure attack affected him. Chuck doesn't noticed Bomb's intense emotions, as he was looking up to Matilda with a puppy eyes.

"Can I have a private talk with you?" Chuck asked in seeking for permission.

Before Matilda could say anything, Bomb covered her beak. "Matilda, you gotta be _careful_ with Chuck's attitude."

Matilda looked puzzled when Bomb said something bad about the little kid. "Why would I be careful, may I ask?"

Bomb, at this time, looked **DEAD** serious from her curiousity. "You may notice how different Chuck is from the other birds. I'm _**NOT**_ saying that the seizure attack affected his attitude, but when you try to engage the conversation with him, he tends to be bored. Not like a regular boredom, because this guy likes to do something his own way."

Matilda didn't understand what he was talking about. She faced the birds the same way. This was rather new to her. Nevertheless, she promised that she would be careful with him. As Bomb left to the bedroom and closed the door, Matilda got the chair from the kitchen side to the main side so Chuck could sit on it.

"Chuck, sit on the chair so that we can have the face-to-face conversation." Matilda ordered him.

Chuck nodded and does what Matilda told him. Then, as he went onto the chair, Matilda noticed something odd. Chuck's sitting position made him looked like he was lying down on a bed taking a nap. "Chuck, _sit properly_!" Matilda demanded him.

"I can't help it, Mommy!" Chuck argued. Matilda sighed and just started the conversation earlier than expected.

Matilda went on, "Chuck, do you remembered what happened before you got yourself covered in paint?"

Chuck, looking scatterbrained, said "I don't know what you're talking about. I was just under the tree and then, **BOOM**! I was a purple monster guy."

Matilda looked down on Chuck but still goes on to test out his brain. "Think deeper! What did you do when Hal and Red approached you?"

But the plan doesn't work. Chuck did not responded to her with an answer. Instead, he was looking at one of the decorations in front of him. As Matilda turned her back into what he was seeing, she had seen a apparatus-shaped case with a red rose in it. Matilda only knew that he just liked the flower and nothing else.

Matilda kept going on, "I know the rose is very pretty for you, but please, _**ANSWER ME FOR HEAVEN'S SAKES**_! What happened when your two friends approached you?"

"Oh, uh, can I talk to you about my discovery? It's the most amazing thing I ever had." Chuck said at the wrong time.

Matilda felt too moronic on hearing a ridiculous thing in his words. "Don't change the subject, Chuck. I'm very serious!"

Chuck looked towards Matilda, but he seemed to had no attention on Matilda's angry face. What seemed even worse was that he just began to fidget unknowingly. Matilda's jaw dropped on seeing that Chuck wiggled more unusual than the other birds.

Then Chuck became talkative at the worst moment of Matilda's point of view. Chuck repeated his phrase excitedly, "I'm the best of the birds!" He hopped onto the wooden chair without knowing that the chair might break

Matilda could hear the chair cracking. "Stop! Whatever you're doing, stop!" She yelled worryingly. Then it was already too late; Chuck broke the chair before he just realised what he had done.

Matilda's tears came out of her eyes. "How could you be so inconsiderate? First, you made the birds climb onto the tall tree without knowing dangers and now you broke the property of the hotel's chair!? Do you know how much the chair costs?"

Chuck found himself surrounded by pieces of wood, then Matilda's expression that finally caught his heart. "Omigosh, I am SO sorry! I just never realised how harsh my actions are. I wanted to tell my discovery, but all you teachers just looked down on me. Especially the big red meanie, Mr. Terence."

"Chuck, listen to me," Matilda convinced him, "the teachers are doing their jobs. It is their duty to look after a student's behaviour. Your attitude needs rather more counselling because of how you act. Not only Terence said that you were an arrogant bird, but you seemed easily distracted, thoughtless and worst of all, your uncontrollable movements!"

Chuck turned very hurt by her honesty. "I was to be like this! It wasn't my fault."

Matilda could see Chuck's eyes begging her for forgiveness. But she still could not believe why Chuck was to be like this. Then Matilda made up her decision.

"Okay, Chuck. Tell me what you had discovered."

 **End of Chapter 3.**


	5. Chapter 4 - A Special Child (Part 2)

**Angry Birds Reunite - Chapter 4 - A Special Child (Part 2)**

The atmosphere of the hotel room and the drama of a sudden attitude from a young canary had finally became quiet. It was too unusual for a teacher like Matilda to listen to the yellow bird after all the bad-to-worse actions he made for the past 7 hours. Neither Matilda nor Chuck spoke about an awkward situation between them, but despite the strange behaviour of him, the white chicken decided to listen to his story, made up or not.

"Back when I had the paint on me, I had a spark out of the blue….." Chuck said in a soft voice, "everything went into confusion to me…."

Matilda, as a good listener, knew that the kid was speaking the truth. But what she got curious was why did the panic shifts into seizure for a split second.

Chuck moved on with his face now facing at his teacher, "I saw that everything around me slowed down in time." While keeping up his face, his voice turned into anxiety. "I was actually in a normal movement, but you guys didn't help me at all! You walked to someone like a snail, and even have a deep, low voice. That was so not normal at all!"

The chicken, even though trying her best to make up what his words means, could not fully understand how, as it looked like a polar opposite, compared to the events in her point of view. She doesn't know whether the sleeping pills that Terence put Chuck to have some other effects other than making him sleep or not. Matilda then stood up from a chair and went to the entrance. "Chuck, I will be right back," she told him. Chuck promised her words by simply nodding his head and sat on a broken wooden chair looking at decorations.

"Don't sit on the wooden pieces," Matilda reminded him, "go sit on a couch. They're very comfortable."

Just before Chuck ran to the sofa, Matilda already left the room to the corridor. She guessed that Terence's room was beside Bomb's room. Before her attempt on knocking a door, a pig janitor looks by her.

"Oh, good evening miss!" The janitor greeted her with a bow by posture and his hat used in a similarity to greeting a royal.

"Good evening, mister," Matilda replied politely, now calmed down from the sight of a pig. "Do you know where Terence is?"

"You mean that dark-shaded bird with a serious attitude that used to work in a French restaurant and now he's a headmaster of his own school with his black assistant and five children as students and conduct school in a clear, green area yet stays in a hotel with little Brother living with him, white one sometimes in forested area and rest outside this hotel, in Piggy Town?" The pig asked with a very long sentence.

Matilda tried her best to not be annoyed by this. "Yes, that _dark-shaded bird_. Where is he?"

Before the janitor could answer, a door was opened right behind her, giving her a shock reaction into jumping up and landed on a pig's head. Someone in the door was none other than Terence, of course.

"Whoa, nice reaction, Bomb's lady. Are you in love with a pig?" Terence joked with a smirk on his face.

Matilda glared at him. "Haha, very funny," she said in sarcasm. "You never told me which room you were at!"

"Very simple. Bomb is my close friend and assistant, therefore I must be living beside him. Very easy, don't you think?" Terence still smiled with a face that said 'Got you!'.

Matilda sticked with Terence's face. "Oh, so you are playing with me! As if you have tricks under your sleeves. Well, imagine if I were in a pig's room and you were finding me with an important message but ending up with meeting with a female janitor and I open the door to see who's there. That would be you, hiding behind a female janitor, because you were with the door that I opened! Do you get that?" She spoke in a serious mood.

Terence understood how she felt from listening to every word she said. "Okay, I get that it wasn't funny. Sorry for the jokes I said to you, Matilda," he apologised.

"Now, let go of me, mister janitor," Matilda ordered the janitor pig. He did what he was told. As he walked away, Matilda finally converse with Terence.

"Well, what is it that you need to tell me?" Terence asked.

"I need to know what kind of effects did the sleeping pills put on Chuck. When he woke up, he told me that he saw everything slowed down. Is there something from the pills that affected Chuck's memories?" Matilda questioned him with curiosity.

Terence became unsure how that happened. "The sleeping pills never put an effect on a person's memory. It could only affect a person's consciousness."

Matilda became confident on hearing that. "So that means Chuck is actually honest about his words. But this brings up another question. Is Chuck actually considered trustworthy?"

"Other than his behaviour that led him to forget my rules and safety, yes. He told me that he had some troubles. When he is very okay with adults, he may tell me that he actually made mistakes that he wasn't aware of. Yup, he behaved himself without ever telling a lie," Terence answered. "Oh, and about that slowed down part, I do realised that it wasn't seizure."

"Then I got the answers. That Chuck is in fact right, then that his view of seeing slowed down movements around him wasn't caused by sleeping pills or seizure," Matilda concluded. "What Chuck told me in his story was that he was actually in a normal panic while our point of view on him was the opposite, meaning something that we thought don't exist actually existed. And that something could be from supernatural myths!"

Terence acknowledged her conclusion, "That is a big possibility. Whatever is left from the myths and legends is still around at this time. Like I heard from someone that telekinesis is possible, a hidden power triggered in Chuck that made him saw us being too slowed in _HIS_ time while we saw him being too quick in **OUR** time! This actually links to time-shift, a power that someone activate the power to his time of seeing people being too slow and him still in normal movement in order to move very fast in our eyes!"

Matilda had her mind blown from hearing that. "Terence, you're a genius! How could I not know that? Other than believing that Mighty Eagle came from legend until Bomb told me about that, this is way _**TOO**_ unreal, that even scientists like my dear owl friends could not explain!"

Terence stopped Matilda from excitement. "Don't get too happy about it. Not everyone believes in time-shifting or telekinesis. This is a secret in between you, me and Chuck. If my students and little Red realise the truth behind Chuck's speed, they can call him a _cheat_. Or even kick him out of this normal island. Just pretend to tell them that speed is his nature." Terence told her in a serious matter.

"Okay, I will not tell any birds or pigs about Chuck's special ability," Matilda followed his words. "I'll keep that in my mind."

"Good," he trusted her, "now you can tell Chuck about my theory and put it into a test. Now, goodnight, Matilda."

"Goodnight, Terence," Matilda waved him back before Terence came back to his room.

Matilda came back inside Bomb's room, only to finding Chuck looking at the album that had pictures of Matilda in a beautiful island on the pages. Matilda's face turned red on knowing that her album is personal and only for privacy. But when Chuck turned to her, he quickly closed the photo book.

"That's some nice photos of you with a pretty flower on your head and you brown friend!" Chuck smiled nervously. "What's her name?"

With him already finished on looking at half of the book, Matilda sighed. "My dear best friend, Dahlia…." Tears went out of her eyes. "We were very close to each other since childhood. We both share in common like interests. Nothing much to say."

Chuck noticed a saddened look on her face. "Aww, that's so bad of you not bringing her here."

Matilda wiped her tears off. "I have to move here for a reason, but that's not important right now. What's more important is that I finally have an answer to your problem."

Chuck's eyes widen. "Really!? Please tell me!" He begged her impatiently.

Matilda went to her bag to find something that might fit Chuck's powers. She hold up a headband that could fit the size of Chuck's head.

"What's that?" He wondered, in which she replied, "Something for you to use for a test."

She put the headband on Chuck's cone head. "A test based on Mr. Terence's time-shift theory. A test to see if you can control that power of yours by activating it. I think you may start activating by jumping up while thinking about slowing down time at the same time. Can you do that?"

Chuck nodded gleefully. Matilda smiled and said, "When I said jump, you jump! Are you ready?"

"Yes, ma'am!" Chuck acted like a soldier.

" _ **I CAN'T HEAR YOU! I SAID ARE YOU READY!?**_ " Matilda screamed at Chuck like a captain, fortunately the pigs and Terence did not complain, even Bomb.

" **YES, MA' AM!** " Chuck replied, getting prepared.

Matilda finally went on with her words.

 _Ready_

 ** _Set_**

 ** _JUMP!_**

And Chuck did jumped on first try. As he did, a white spark appeared in front of both Matilda and Chuck's eyes. The plan seems successful, as Chuck landed on the floor and looked at Matilda pretty fast. "How does it feel now, Chuck?" Matilda asked in surprise from her view on Chuck.

At Chuck's view perspective, he saw Matilda acting like a sloth and spoke at him with a manly voice. He felt irritated by that timing.

"Well, _duh_! I'm good!" Chuck replied with a sense of arrogance.

To Matilda's view and hearing, he moved five times faster and sounds like a chipmunk. She could barely understand his words. Now she knew that the time-shift theory is true.

Matilda then have to stop Chuck's power by telling him to do the same thing. But it could be difficult, considering the fact that she can't imitate his speed. But she, once again, never gave up and try her best to copy Chuck by moving and sounding like him.

In Chuck's time, he could finally see Matilda acting normal again, even hearing her feminine voice, "Okay Chuck, you can deactivate your powers now. Think of making time normal while jumping at the same time." Chuck did what she told him and a white spark appeared again but this time, to Matilda's sight, it went inside his body.

Chuck now felt dizzy from doing that, but Matilda eased his dizziness by hugging him. "Don't worry, Chuck. You may practice doing it everyday. But remember to keep it a secret between you, me and Terence. But in case, you felt like this again, call either me or Terence."

"Okay…." Chuck smiled a little while lying on her chest. "You're a _real_ mommy to me, Mommy…."

Matilda smiled back, thinking of Chuck as her own son. "Mommy knows her best, dear."

And then, Chuck went to sleep. Matilda carried him to the sofa and took her album back to check what happened to the pages. They looked fine to her. But before she closed the book, her eyes went back onto a picture of her and Dahlia. Once again, she became sorrowful. "I missed you so much, Dahlia…" She put her album into where it was; her bag.

She went into the bedroom, but much to her surprise, Bomb appeared to not sleep on the bed, but rather preparing a bed for Matilda like a gentleman.

"You took a long time just to make a bed?" Matilda asked.

"Nope. Pull a blanket out, waiting for you to come on this bed," Bomb told her in patience. "Anyways, how's Chuck?"

"Everything's fine," Matilda replied without revealing anything. "I managed to do what you said."

"That's awesome!" Bomb cheered in victory. "It's three thirty! Keeping up my sore eyes from reading comic books and eating ice creams that I kept from fridge."

"Oh gosh," Matilda laughed. "You are so silly."

She went onto the bed besides Bomb, making both of them blushing that they were sleeping with each other. After all, it was Matilda's first day.

"Uh…. let's not be close to each other cause' you know…." Bomb mumbled, giving a wink to Matilda to know what he was talking about.

Matilda got it, since they weren't supposed to start a relationship early. Then she told him, "Like I said, maybe we can start a date days later."

But Bomb still talked about the love relationship. "We can schedule the date to the year where the students are already old enough to live as young adults."

"Even when the kids act like young adults, they should grow up to a specific age of at least 25 in order to start a life." Matilda corrected Bomb's statement.

"Alright, that is a good idea," Bomb agreed, feeling unhappy about his plan. "We should go to sleep now. Tomorrow is another day."

The next day, the birds had arrived back to the clear, green area. This time, Matilda wore two red roses; the one tied on feather head. The other tied around her tail with green stem stalk visible. Matilda had such a bright mood when she saw the kids being happy again. Chuck was right beside her, focusing on the sight of the sky. Just as the other three children noticed him, Hockey and Red ran to him with relief.

"Oh, I am so glad to see you with your old yellow colour!" Red exclaimed. "I'm really sorry for that accident of dropping a purple paint onto you."

"Did you forget that Hal is the ONE that dropped the paint?" Hockey questioned his remembrance. "Hal has an inability to balance himself on such platforms!"

"That's enough, guys!" Hal cut in between the fight, which his beak halfway healed and his words quite clear. "That already happened and it's over now. You should not talk about that!"

Hockey sighed on hearing that and went back to his seat arrangement. Red looked back at Chuck and said with regret, "I don't want that to happen anymore. I know you don't like that lavender colour. Let's not do the same mistake ever again."

Chuck felt better from hearing that. He walked to the group to join the conversation. He asked, "where's Silver? I haven't seen her around."

"After all those nonsense she gave to me," Red replied in disappointment, "she came back to her home in Piggy Town."

"That's nuts, Red," Hockey commented. "She will still go to school. She told me about that. Just give her a few more minutes before she can recover and talk to you again."

By good timing, Silver happened to finally arrived. Much to the birds' confusion, an adult male pig is seen beside her.

Tony, still being in his visit to Piggy Island for some reason, asked the pig, "Oh, what brings you here to a school, sir?"

"Silver told me some problems she had, so I decided to come and see the headmaster, Mr. Terence," the pig replied.

"So, you are a guardian of Silver, eh?" Terence walked to the pig with suspicion.

"I almost forgot to tell you this but, that pig is Silver's _father_ ," Hockey told him.

Everyone became silent at that moment. One of the children's parent is a pig.

"We're actually not related," Silver told the truth, looking too serious about the situation, which was unusual considering her goofy nature. "I looked at the pigs as MY family."

Red looked very embarrassed on Silver's nature. Now that he knows the truth behind Silver's fun personality, he walked away slowly into hiding behind Tony, who became worried about his little cousin's downfall.

Terence announced to everyone involved at the scene. "I will have a talk with Silver's dad in private. Just ignore this moment. Also, can anyone talk Red back here?"

Nobody response for some time, until Silver raised up. "I will talk to Red."

Matilda, concerned about both Silver and Red's stability, told Silver not to upset Red even further. "Maybe you can try to cheer him up. But if you can't do that, well I will talk to Red."

Silver nodded slightly before walking up to Red. Tony moved Red aside to allow her to talk to him. Still looking down on Silver, he looked back and ignored her presence. Now that Terence and Silver's daddy were gone to the office, Silver tried to convince Red to listen to her.

"Hey there, goofy furball," Red said in a low tone. "Having fun with your _favourite_ game?"

"Don't put that into a matter, friend," Silver told him. "I just wanted to say that I'm sorry."

"I don't think so," Red said in disbelief, "you were with a Pig. Therefore, you know what a hairy pig is."

"Stop it, Red!" Silver demanded! "Mr. Terence had already put every bad things to the end! Why can't we be friends again?"

Red turned his face to Silver, looking strict. "Why? Can you put an example to a funny thing about my 'bad thing'? Not everything bad ended like that."

Silver tried her best, but ending up revealing something that triggered Red's anger. "It's just so funny to me when Terence told you that you just 'unleashed' your true colours."

" ** _STOP SAYING THAT WORD!_** " Red snapped out.

Chuck, Hal and Hockey stopped having a peaceful conversation and Matilda, once again, jumped up and landed onto Bomb's head. This was the second time Red had a breakdown.

Silver's eyes became wider the louder Red shouted at her.

"YOU BETTER STOP SAYING THAT WORD ' _UNLEASHED_ '!" an enraged red cardinal yelled. "How about I tell you that you just unleashed my rage! All because you unleashed jokes to me that I don't even find it funny in the **FIRST PLACE**! How about you put your **stupid puns** in front of my face everyday? Did you realise how you feel if you were the _one_ who was on the tallest tree being helpless and then you unleashed your rage because you can't take it anymore!? It's NEVER funny especially when you were in **BIG DANGER**! You're worse than a ignorant pig. **_YOU SICK, TWISTED AND HEARTLESS BIRD-PIG!_** "

Upon hearing the insult called directly towards Silver, everybody became shocked. Red never insult a bird before. He was known to be a kind and mature kid, but now he took his rage very serious. Silver took off her orange headphones, with tears filling up her eyes. The group of boys stared at Red as if he were to blame.

Hockey's face became mad while glaring at Red. "How could you do this to her? She's our friend!"

"Yeah!" Chuck and Hal screamed, being on Hockey's side.

Bomb and Tony walked to Red with disappointed looks on their face. Red could not realised what he had done until his big cousin scolded, "You should be ashamed of yourself, making a girl cry! Girls are very sensitive when they are shouted at, especially at young age!"

Bomb joined Tony's side. "I'll give you time to think what kind of mistake you made before you can say sorry to Silver."

Red quickly shift emotions to regret. "Please don't tell my brother what I did!" he begged the adults.

"Oh, I will tell him," Bomb rejected. "We cannot accept that behaviour of yours. Now go to your 'thinking room'."

Looking at Red walking to the tallest tree from a long distance, Matilda followed him. During the time they were walking, Red saw Matilda stalking behind him. He yelled at her, "DON'T FOLLOW ME!" but she still did it. Just as they reached to the tree, Red pushed himself to the stem where the paint was drawn on. Leaning against the stem of the tree, Red kept whispering to himself wishing about something.

Matilda worryingly convinced him, "Red, it's okay. I forgive you for that. You seems to have some troubles about it."

Red's eyebrow lower when he looked at his teacher. "Yeah right, I can't forgive Silver for a joke. All because I was in danger. But these people scold me instead of her!"

"They scold you not because you hated Silver for a joke," Matilda brought up the reason, "it is because of unacceptable behaviour."

"Unacceptable behaviour!?" Red's eye pupils shrink. "Big Brother can scold me but I wasn't allowed to! As if I was a pushover….."

Matilda understood why he felt like that, but still went on the reasonings. "You are still a child. A child of about 10 years old. You are still growing up. That is the reason why they, as adults, have to tell you not to scold people around you."

Red looked up to Matilda with normal eyes. "So, they don't hate me?"

"They LOVED you, especially your brother. They're trying to guide you so that when you became an adult, you will learn to be a serious adult, as well as guiding children the same way you are guided as a child," Matilda explained.

Red finally actualize the real reason given to him. He now felt sorry for hurting Silver's feelings. "Let's go back, Mommy. I have something to say to Silver," Red told Matilda, standing up to prepare himself for the outcome."

As they returned back to where they were, they found Silver talking to her pig father with her orange headphones held by Terence. Red ran to her saying, "Silver! I have something to say to you!"

The children looked at him and greeted with disgust. Silver turned around to see a panting Red in front of her like a dog, discomforting her.

"I'm so sorry for everything," Red apologised with puppy eyes. "The mess I made that cause this….."

Silver looked at her right to see the children, as if she didn't believe him. The children scratched their heads on looking at her, without any words from their beak.

Red tried to brighten up her mood by complimenting about her. "I have to admit the joke you came up with was actually funny. And the game that I told you I don't like it, remember? I actually LOVED it! The game is so unique with new stuff! Makes me want to see more furry birds or pigs in the future!"

Silver looked reluctant to forgive Red from listening to his praise. Before telling him how she felt, she was cut of by Matilda. "Mommy, are you on Red's side?" She asked.

"I don't choose sides," Matilda replied honestly, "But I was the one who made Red realise what he had done and I know deep in my heart that what he said to you is the truth. So please, Silver, you may forgive him."

Silver changed her mind on listening to Matilda. "Apology accepted, Red. I need my fluffy headphones back."

Terence gave her headphones back and went to Red and Matilda with a glad face. "I am proud of both of you. Matilda, good job on making Red realise his mistakes and little brother, you tried your best on your apology. Now we can have a good time."

Matilda giggled, "Oh, it was a piece of cake. Now where was I?"

Bomb came up to Matilda. "M'lady, we need your help on getting more food supplies."

Matilda accepted his mission. "Roger that, _my prince_."

And so, the two future couple went to Piggy Town, with sun shining on them. The kids became happy to play with each other and Tony, Terence and Red had a good family time laughing in their conversation. One of the most good memorable moments of her life since childhood.

 **Present Time**

The memory finally faded, returning Matilda to reality. She found herself on a beach chair under an umbrella. She got shocked to see that Hal and Bubbles weren't here anymore.

"Oh my Mighty Eagles!" Matilda exclaimed. "I was put into memory reminiscing and now Hal and Bubbles aren't here at all! I need to follow their footsteps to see what they had done."

Meanwhile, Hal and Bubbles were almost reaching to the location, where Matilda used to be. They still weren't talking to each other, due to arguments and conflict. Bubbles can't really handle the pain from helping Hal in the first place, and because of being in reality, he finally threw his useless lollipop to the bush, hoping to forget about his candy addiction and start a different way of life. Hal looked at him by eyes, being slightly impressed by his new change of taste.

Bubbles raised his eyebrow on sensing that Hal was actually looking at him, but ignored him and went on to the end of the pathway. "We have arrived, Hal," Bubbles announced in boredom. "And look what we have here?"

Hal became easily excited on hearing that despite Bubbles' negative attitude. "Red and his Flock are here?"

Bubbles' frown stretched. "No, _even better_ ," he replied in sarcasm.

Hal looked at his front and in despair, his thought of Red and the other birds located at this place was wrong.

 **The Flock wasn't here at all.**

 **End of Chapter 4**


	6. Chapter 5 - Their First Date

**Angry Birds Reunite - Chapter 5 - Their First Date**

Hal and Bubbles had happened to approached a deserted area and silence around the atmosphere. There were no signs of birds around, but there were some damages left on the grass. Bubbles snapped out of himself from falling into Hal's idea and stared at him angrily.

" **I KNEW I SHOULDN'T HAVE LISTEN TO YOU!** " Bubbles scolded. "You were wrong that Red and his Flock were here! I told you so about your consequences of leaving the group and I was the one to help you all this time! Now look at the mess."

But Hal denied the fact about his bad idea. "I don't think so, Bubbles. Matilda walked long way to my home from here and she is part of the Flock. Meaning that they were here before we arrived."

"So what!?" Bubbles yelled. "Just because she is 'part of the Flock', doesn't mean the Flock was here. Most of the times, the Flock were separated to do their things. Your argument is invalid."

"Let's not talk about this, _amigo_. We have no proof yet," said Hal. "How about we examine this area to find some clues of what actually happened."

"I prefer to do things my way," Bubbles interjected. "I'm going to find Mother Matilda myself while you do your own thing."

"Okay, fine," Hal reluctantly agreed. "I'm just offering your help, that's all."

Bubbles already walked away from Hal before he could say goodbye to him. Hal ignored the signs of dislike from the orange oriole as he moved on to his investigation on the whole area. He searched around everything for a short while until he found the first clue, which looked weird to him. He found something that looked as if a small-sized meteor had crashed onto a place, only that it had thin ice covering about three-quarter of it. As he noticed the three colourful caps left in the middle of the chunk, he came into his realisation.

"Those three caps looked like they can fit the heads of three eggs! This must have mean the Flock were here all along!" Hal concluded. "But where is the slingshot?"

He continued on searching for clues, until he found a slingshot from just a short distance. Yet another abnormal thing is the same thin ice frozen on the rubber band.

"Where did that ice came from?" Hal wondered as he focused very closely on the ice part. "I must tell Bubbles and Miss Matilda about all this. Maybe they know about this."

Meanwhile, Bubbles was running back to where Matilda was supposedly located, but the speed was slower than usual due to strong sunburn on him, giving heavy panting and lots of sweats on his forehead. As the speed level already exceeded to its limit, Bubbles stopped running from loss of energy. He dislikes exercising outdoors and now that he ate candy too much in the past, he felt unfit for such activities. He could no longer activate his inflate power to breathe in more air, as it became useless as well. He laid down on the surface, but it burned his back for a split second, making him jumped out of the ground as if he was on fire.

Bubbles could not believe the fact that he couldn't forget about everything he left behind him and became more furious about his wrongdoings on talking smack to Hal. Before he could even think more about it, he was patted on head by someone behind me. He turned around 180 degrees, only to get surprised by Matilda's sudden presence.

"Oh, I thought you were a goner," Bubbles cried in relief. "What happened to you, Mommy?"

"I just went unconscious," Matilda replied without reasonings. "Why did you and Hal leave me alone?"

Bubbles' face turned red. "Hal gave an idea of finding your teammates but they weren't actually there."

Matilda became confused upon hearing that. "I do remember that Red and the others were there when I started to leave to go to Hal's home. I even promised Bomb not to go somewhere else even if they are in danger."

Bubbles broke down in regret. "Oh, Hal was right all along! I think I did the wrong thing!"

Matilda hugged Bubbles to calm him down. "Don't think negative about yourself. You did what you were trying to do. Anyways, how come they suddenly disappear?"

Bubbles shook his head, which made Matilda upset about the fact that her teammates left her alone. But she thought that the birds were off to find their eggs, so she ignored the topic.

"We shall wait for them to come back. We have a lot of things to do," said a self-assured Matilda.

"I suppose you can do that tomorrow morning, since I just ran out of energy," Bubbles told her with dark bags under his eyes. "We need to take a rest at that place where you usually slept on the hammock."

"Okay then," Matilda agreed. "Let's go back to my homeland."

As they arrived back to the short hill, Bubbles saw Hal being prepared to see him again. Hal sighed in relief when he saw Matilda being recovered from unconscious state. But just as he looked at Bubbles, he noticed the guilt on his face.

"I'm sorry for misunderstanding you," Bubbles apologised with still shame taking over his feelings. "Matilda told me everything I need to know."

"No time for that!" Hal interrupted Bubbles' apology. "I found two clues that I cannot understand of!"

Hal pointed his beak towards the two clues that had ice covered on them, much to both Bubbles and Matilda's confusion.

"I thought that usually happen during the month of Halloween," said Bubbles, "you know, supernatural powers and monsters around the places."

"Well, anything can happen anytime," said Hal. "And that goes into my book about fate."

Matilda's eyelid twitch upon seeing strange ice coverings. "How did this happen? Don't tell me the Flock got frozen to death!"

"Or they got caught by icy blue monsters!" Bubbles added.

Hal laughed. "There's no such thing as icy blue monsters!" he said with a chuckle.

"Yes there is! Ever heard of Werepigs?" Bubbles tested on Hal's mind.

"Oh yeah," Hal recalled, "I seen them near my home once during full moon in one of those Halloween days. I dragged Red into this since he likes to see furry pigs and werewolves. And he was like 'AHHHH! SCARY HAIRY MONSTER PIGS!' and he fainted. And my dear friendly hairy dudes and I laughed all night long! Then I threw water on Red and he woke up to see them again and asked me 'Why did you pull me to all this!?' and I answered 'Because you like them so much! You should be happy that you finally get your wish from childhood!' It was a great night and he slept on the fur of one of the Werepigs. He told me he actually enjoyed it with a wide smile on his beak!"

Matilda wasn't delighted on listening to his story. "That's very bad of you! You not supposed to give people heart attack when you pull them to dangerous things."

Hal still chuckled a bit, only with his cheeks turning red slowly. He then turned serious. "Anyways, these clues might hint the fact that they don't look like the ones from the Pigs. Why would the Pigs give us clues that they did something with the birds? This makes no sense."

"Correct," said Matilda. "Enemies cannot expose their evidence on their enemies. It's like giving a message for us to save them."

"So the pigs are out of question," said Bubbles while thinking, "but we still have no idea what happened to our friends."

"Whatever these clues really mean, I think we should wait for the birds to come back. Who knows, we never get the answers until we find out," Hal indicated.

Later at night, Matilda and Bubbles were sharing on one hammock and Hal lying on another hammock above them playing calm music on his banjo. Bubbles felt like he was unable to sleep, due to bad memories coming back to him. As a child, he felt that another good story from Matilda may help him to sleep. Once again, he looked up to Matilda. Matilda looked like as if she hadn't got any sleep for days.

"Mommy, aren't you supposed to sleep?" Bubbles asked.

Despite some bad thoughts about the Flock in her, Matilda made a small smile and replied, "I will sleep when I'm okay."

"Tell me a story," Bubbles nagged her. Matilda, at first glance, shook her head over the fact that she might continue on her story, considering the fact that she was keeping a **TOP** secret of Chuck's mystical powers. She then think of what kind of story would she tell to the child. She remembered that most of her time before the big fight in between birds and pigs, she was always on her date with Bomb. It took a long time for her to tell Bubbles her date story since she had been left alone with him and Hal from Red and his Flock, until she finally decided to do it for Bubbles' sake.

"Back in my time when the five children grew up to young adult age," Matilda started telling her story.

 **Past Time**

It was the first year of the children already graduated and grown up into young adult age. Silver, being the youngest, then at age 18, stopped wearing her orange fluffy headphones and moved on into staying at her own tree house located in a forest, a little far from Piggy Town. Hockey, three years older than Silver, packed up his things and told his friends that he would leave to follow up his dreams as a hockey player. The rest of the birds, Chuck, Red and Hal, decided to stay on the area, all being at age 22.

Chuck, Red and Hal kept their relationship as best friends and at this time, they had a discussion about their future. Bomb, who had his appearance slightly changing with his eyes getting smaller, and Matilda, who still kept her pink eyes and rose on her top feather and tail, were watching the three young men talking to each other.

"I already have my plans set up," said an excited Red, who kept some of his childhood traits as a joyful kid. "I'm gonna be a father!"

"Cool," Hal and Chuck expressed with proud faces, "so who's gonna be your lover?"

"I don't need lovers for children," Red replied. "But I will find a way of getting children. Anybody can give me a suggestion?"

"Adopting bird eggs," Chuck suggested, "duh!"

"That is a great idea!" Red and Hal agreed happily. Red continued on, "Once I get my hands on those eggs, I will tell everyone of my friends, including the pigs, to celebrate a party of "Expectant Father"! What do you think, Mother Matilda?"

Matilda nodded. "But before you can adopt bird eggs, you need to read the guide book on how to become a good parent," she reminded him. "Also, from now on, you can call me Miss Matilda."

"Okay, Miss Matilda," he said. As the best friends moved back to their private conversation, Bomb and Matilda went somewhere alone to have their good time.

It was finally their first date ever! Bomb had kept his promise for the right time to start their love relationship. They had been getting more information of their past for long time as partners of Terence and now that he stopped administering his business, it was time that the dark red Cardinal, turning from a medium-sized bird to a large-sized bird with face staying at where it was, looking more serious than ever, retired from his occupation. Because of that, they need to refresh their life to a better one.

They went to a classic French restaurant, where Bomb and Terence used to work at, and noticed in the interior that there were less customers. An oval-looking pig with a Chef hat and a curly moustache approached them with his menu held.

"What can I do for you, _oiseau_?" asked the waiter with a French accent. "Are you having a date?" (Oiseau means bird in French)

"Yes," Bomb replied. "It's our first time."

"Wonderful," the pig exclaimed. "I can lead you lovebirds to a place of beauty so you can spend a great time together!"

The couple followed the pig to the area, which his description of the place was actually right. The place had a well-decorated patterned-cloth on table suitable for a date with red rose on a glass vase and two plates fully-prepared with forks and spoons. It even had two chairs that had white sheets covering on them. The walls were patterned with colourful roses and the floor looked very smooth and clean. A ceiling lamp was facing straight above the red rose.

He thanked the French Pig for showing them the way to a place appropriate for romantic moments. He responded the thanks by saying " _Je vous en prie_." (A main way of saying "You're welcome" in French.)

As they got onto the seats, they were given with one classic looking menu, which Bomb thought it was a Chinese menu.

"A Chinese menu?" he said in terror. "I thought werewolves would get their hand-claws on these!"

" _Imbecile_!" Chef Pig screamed in rage. "We do not serve Chinese food by Chinese menu! Looks like you have forgotten about the day when you and your tough-looking partner work with my job!"

Matilda defended Bomb from the irritated pig. "Pardon me, sir. He just didn't know there are many kinds of languages other than Chinese and Japanese."

"Oh, hah!" Chef Pig scoffed of the pretty lady being loyal to an idiot. "You're smarter than this, woman! Teach him about the world outside. He must be very satisfied!"

As he walked away from the birds, Matilda hugged Bomb to cheer him up. "I'm sorry that you're being limited to this one place. I found this place amazing. So maybe one day I can bring you to my original homeland, Golden Island. That island is full of wonderful things."

"Wonderful?" Bomb's mood didn't improved. "I won't leave my homeland, m'lady! You can do so many things in your life. But my life is no similar to yours. After all, I have to take care of future children."

Matilda gave him an advice. "Take a break from the déjà vu, dear. Your old students are all grown up now. Hockey will become the hockey player, Silver will have her adventures and is fine with Red, Red will become a father, Chuck will follow his dreams like Hockey, only as a racer and Hal….will take care of himself since his ability to stay balanced had improved. Don't worry about Terence, he's still living healthy but one day, his living soul might give up and let him go to afterlife. As for us, it isn't too late to learn something new and get ourselves a new life as a family. Besides, it's not even late to visit different islands out there."

Bomb seems to be happy again. "I'm okay now, Matilda. You're full of inspiration not only to me, but to those five youngsters."

"Now we need to take an order to eat," she reminded him. "Let's take turns on looking at the menu."

They were on their seats, looking at each other. They were both filled with uncertainties. Without thinking, Bomb made the usual knock-knock joke that he used since the second day of Matilda's stay in Piggy Island. He asked, "Knock knock!"

"Who's there?" his lover joined in the joke.

"I am…." he continued.

"I am who?"

"I am not sure what to say, except I'm un-Chef-tain about this!" Bomb yelped.

Matilda giggled on it, even though it sounds like a bad pun joke. "Me too, Bomb. I'm 'pretty' sure we got ourselves on a 'bed' time", she said, pointing at little number of customers snoring on tables.

Bomb laughed as if it was a clever pun. The pun jokes from the date couple never stop!

A minute later, the same Chef Pig arrived with the spaghetti, carrot soup and ice cream. Bomb had his interest of eating the spaghetti and he loved to eat ice cream as that is his favourite dessert while Matilda simply have no other choice but to choose carrot soup, since she eat carrots before. As the chef put the food on the table, he glared at Matilda.

"I bet you had all the fun with your future husband! I used to work with him and big Ter-Ter and all I get from them is disgust!" Chef Pig said with a naughty smile on his face.

Matilda tried her best to ignore his insults on Bomb and Terence.

"Ignoring me, eh?" he asked. "I hope not because I know it in my eyes that you may lose your temper like those two birds! Birds really are stupid in anger management!"

As he openly said that to bully the birds, he got confronted by a medium-sized pig who happened to be a postman.

"Leave them alone, sir," he told him politely. "They're normal people, like us! Just because that lady is a 'bird', doesn't make the fact that she is an angry bird. Basically, you lose temper as well. Doesn't that make you an 'Angry Pig'?"

Steams came out of Chef Pig's ears. "How **dare** you insult one of your kind!? You just compared me with different species!"

"I did not insult you," the postman pig corrected him. "I'm just here to remind you to not make fun of people that aren't our species. This is a fight-free restaurant. Do you understand now, sir?"

Chef Pig look frustrated upon hearing that. He never fought a pig shorter than him before. Humiliated, he walked back to the kitchen as quick as a cheetah. The customers just woke up of shock without any clue of what was going on with the scene.

The postman pig came to Matilda and Bomb to apologise for the outrage. "That kind of guy had a huge history with birds. Luckily, I stopped him from picking you two as his victims."

The birds nodded in acknowledgement and appreciated his help. The postman pig had a response of giving them a wink, as if he knew that they were on a date, and went back to his seat.

Half an hour later, the two birds went on a short journey to a beach, now Hal's home, where everything was crystal clear with sunset shining on ocean and nobody was around except the couple standing on the sand. Bomb found a stick lying just beside him and picked it up to draw a circle around them so that they won't go anywhere during the beautiful scenery. Matilda asked Bomb to give the stick to her, in which he did what she asked him. She used the stick to write on the sand, written 'BombxMatilda'.

"Now that is what I call a 'perfect date for relaxing on the rough sand'," Bomb commented.

As they watch the sun going down, Bomb stood up to confess something to his lover. "Matilda, my lady. I have something to tell you."

"Okay. What is it?" asked Matilda, which he then responded by telling her to stand up. As she stood up, Bomb bowed down and took something out of his back. Matilda saw that it was a box, but when he opened it to reveal a gold ring that could fit in the hair piece, she became surprised.

"Will you marry me?" Bomb questioned to wait for her answer.

Matilda, with tears of joy, hugged him with a wide smile. "I do! I really, _really_ do!"

Just as the sun disappeared, all of a sudden, Matilda fainted with heart attack. The moment before everything turned pitch black, she could barely see a horrified Bomb going around seeking help. The last thing she hear was her last breath.

" _Ugh, where am I?" The voice of Matilda's consciousness said. "Why can't I see anything here? Am I….dead?"_

A light sparked, transporting her to a realm where it felt more like a dream than reality. Matilda, in a vision world, found herself on a grass ground.

" _Where am I? I thought I was on a beach. Am I dreaming?"_

As soon as she was thinking about the strange world, she saw the blurry sight of colourful birds coming out of nowhere. It didn't took that long to reveal those 'birds' when it became sharp enough to clearly identify them.

She recognised most of these birds, Terence, Bomb, Red and Chuck. But she was confused upon seeing the three blue birds. They looked like young birdlings. As she closely examine them, she saw yet another bird on the unacknowledged slingshot. That bird looked like an ice cube, making her bewildered about the fact that there weren't any kind of birds that looked like an object. Still thinking of the sight as a dream, she ignored the looks of the strange bird.

Just as she back off the stranger, she felt another strange thing behind her. When she looked back, this time, it was a **HUMONGOUS** purple-to-white wormhole up on the sky. The unexpected view sends chills down her spine, despite the fact that it looked more unbelievable than the ice bird. The moment she saw it, she also noticed the birds queuing up the slingshot.

"Ugh!" The ice bird growled. "The Eggsteroid had never been stolen by these pig machines before! I need to give them their own medicine!"

The ice bird then flung himself off the slingshot to the portal, leaving parts of his icy body stuck on the rubber band.

Matilda walked to Bomb, whose eyes looked even smaller than the Bomb she had a date with. She tried to talk to the in-dream-world bird. But her voice was full of echoes instead.

" _Bomb, can you see me? It's me, Matilda."_

"…."

There was no response.

Then, she saw Red and Chuck in confused faces while looking at the blank sky. She had another attempt to talk to them.

" _My little Red and Chuck, can you two young ones hear me?"_

They hadn't reply either.

As she walked to Terence, he responded by looking at her, unlike the other birds she known. Noticing her distress, Terence turned to face towards her, as if he was the real Terence. This Terence looked larger, making his face seem smaller. His almost looked emotionless and had forehead wrinkles.

Matilda spoke, now with normal voice, "Terence, what is going on? I was on a date with Bomb and then all of a sudden, I just faint. This feels like a dream."

"Ah, I see," Terence said in acknowledgement. "I bet this is actually the vision of the future prediction. But time goes short, you don't know when this will happen."

"Do you know when will this happen?" Matilda asked, which Terence just shrugged it off.

"Even I don't know when will that time come. I doubt even myself in your timeline would know this. What you looking at right now is the warning from the future. That's all I could tell you now."

A loud yell came out from one of the birds, but all she heard was babbling and mumbling.

"What did these birds say?" asked Matilda. Terence told her he didn't want to 'spoil the reveal'.

Just as the birds went onto the slingshot, the big red cardinal mentioned that he had to go with them. But the white chicken was full of curiosity and questioned him with one word. "Why?"

"It's how fate happens. Who you're talking to is the subconscious of your Terence. The one following the birds is the consciousness of the future Terence who just saw what was in his eyes and did what he had to do," he explained. "I'm sorry you have to hear that, _Bomb's lady_."

As Terence was the last one to use the slingshot to enter the wormhole, everything turned black again, bringing her back to reality.

Matilda opened her eyes, only to find herself on the same location where she and Bomb were relaxing. It was already nighttime and there were her current company surrounding her with torchlights.

"You're okay now, Bomb's lady," a younger Terence said with a smile.

Bomb sighed happily. "Oh, I thought you were going to turn-"

"Cut that out!" Red yelled in annoyance. "Yes, I do like 'them', but that doesn't you have to say that twice!"

Chuck and Hal giggled while trying to cover their beak from their irritated yet glad friend.

"Anyways," Red's mood swing back to joy, "I got some exciting news for you!"

The canary and toucanet stepped aside from their positions to reveal three blue birdlings with red eyelids.

Matilda jumped in shock to see those birds from her vision. The future Terence was right all along.

"Whoa there, Mommy!" Chuck caught her reaction. "You know these triplets?"

Matilda tried to answer, but Terence took over her anyway.

"While she was unconscious, she was in a vision of seeing her future," he replied. "So that is, in fact, a yes."

Chuck stared at Terence in his usual way, just because the big bird was so unpredictable.

"He knows stuff we don't know," Bomb and Red said together.

"Guys, go back to where we stay," Terence ordered them. "I have a secret conversation with Matilda."

The birds did what he told them to do. Before the group disappeared, Chuck gave him his last glare with his right eye popped out, showing the signs of jealousy in him. Terence somehow ignored him so he could focus on Matilda.

"How is it going with your ' _dream world'_?" He asked with a smirk.

"Dear god, Terence," Matilda spoke in disappointment. "Why do you always start conversations by displeasing me?"

Terence laughed and admitted, "that's the way I do when I converse with beautiful ladies like you. Sorry, I can't help it."

Matilda sighed disapprovingly. "What is it this time, mister 'Tough Guy who likes to make woman angry'?"

Terence's facial expression, once again, became serious. "I'm going to somewhere else from now on."

Matilda's eyebrow raised in confusion. This was rather odd, considering the good life of the birds living in Piggy Island.

Terence quickly shifted into sadness. "I want to go somewhere out there to achieve my goal; deafness."

"What!?" Matilda inconveniently wailed. "Why would you do that? Your little brother is already going to have a family and you have the choice of losing one of your five senses? What are you thinking about?"

Terence didn't said any word out for a while. This had really made Matilda upset, taking into consideration of their bird friends already having a good life. Terence moaned and briefed something that Matilda never forgot about then.

"I won't tell you why. You can research that in a history book in the library, but I respect your choice of staying with your friends and your engaged boyfriend. But remember this, when I come back on that day, we will meet again in a place where it feels like hell. For now….just do whatever you want, Matilda. You got that?"

Matilda skeptically nodded without saying anything nor even looking at Terence. It sounded like as if something bad was going to happen. It doesn't make sense in her vision prediction either. The last time she saw Terence was him strolling away from her in long distance under the crescent moon. In the end, Matilda walked back to the birds' home without another more prediction about Terence meeting the birds again.

 **Present Time**

As Matilda finished her story, Bubbles and Hal became silent. Hal stopped playing his banjo and Bubbles glanced at him to see his reaction.

"Miss Matilda, you never told me or Red about Terence's farewell?" Hal interrogated.

"Terence never told me anything. It took long to figure it out when pigs started stealing eggs from Red since that "Expectant Father" party," Matilda reflected and sighed in dismay. "I should have known earlier before that happened."

Bubbles stood up and concluded, "This have something to do with not only the start of the egg war, but the disappearance of the Flock as well!"

Matilda and Hal looked at Bubbles in a need for explanation. Bubbles went on, "Mother Matilda, your vision of the future prediction is actually true. It is the reason why they actually were gone without you; the wormhole! Hal, did you see that purple-coloured hole in the sky?"

Hal began to be surprised. "I thought I was dreaming, kid! So I ignored it as an imagination?"

"Did you forget, Hal?" Bubbles refreshed Hal's memory. "Anything can happen anytime! It eventually goes into your book about fate."

"How could I not know this?" Matilda queried. "You're telling me that they went…... **INTO SPACE!?** "

"Mhmm," Bubbles replied, nodding his head like being correct.

Matilda now understood why she fainted twice in her past, Red's Flock not being here and previously 'supposed' future prediction in vision. They all lead everything to this. Once again, that Terence in her vision was right. Now that she knew the answer, she need something to get herself and the remaining birds inserted to space. But the problem was that there weren't any functioning rockets left around the place. The Pigs' Town might have those rockets, but then again, the birds and the pigs never trusted each other and that was why the birds had to protect the eggs.

Hal had a solution. "Revisit our old friends. I'll go to Silver and Hockey to ask for help, while you do the same thing with Red's big cousin and old friends."

"I'll follow Matilda on her way," Bubbles proposed. "You go on your own."

Hal still wondered why Bubbles decided to go with Matilda instead of him, considering his apologies. "I'm okay with that," Hal said without thinking more about him."

"Then the plan is settled," Matilda finished Hal's words, "but we need to take a rest. When the sun rises, we will do according to your proposal."

"Yes, ma'am!" Bubbles and Hal soluted like soildiers.

Matilda smiled. As the two birds went to sleep, she kissed on the orange oriole and said something before she went to sleep as well.

" _Good night."_

 **End of Chapter 5.**


	7. Chapter 6 - Travelling (Part 1)

**Angry Birds Reunite - Chapter 6 - Travelling (Part 1)**

Rise and shine! It was morning already when Bubbles was the last of the three birds to wake up. It wasn't actually a great start of the day, as Bubbles happened to look upset. He couldn't bear all of the nightmares given to him and the story Matilda told doesn't even help that much. He could remember about giant candy monsters chasing after him while he was running away with healthy food by his side. Other than that, he saw part of his dream retold from Matilda's 'future prediction'. It looked exactly the same, but the only differences were the blank faces and Terence not talking to him, probably because he never seen him talking before.

He looked at Matilda to see how she had been doing. She was standing beside a rock looking at the blue sky. Hal, in a concerned face, came pass by to talk to her. Matilda, being herself, paid attention to look at Hal just in case he need anything.

"You need anything, miss?" the green bird asked.

Matilda smiled up for a bit, pretending nothing happened to her. Actually, she was so distressed on the hopes of the return of Red's flock. She acted like her usual self, making sure Hal won't notice anything strange.

"I'm fine, dear Hal. I don't need anything," Matilda replied politely, keeping up all her best.

Hal knew that didn't look right. Ever since Red, Chuck, Bomb, Terence and the Blues left her all alone on the island with Hal and Bubbles, Matilda should have acted differently. In her eyes, he could clearly tell how hurt she was when she was being betrayed by her own team.

"I should have avoid that from happening if I were with them," Hal regretted. "If only I would still be in the team."

Upon hearing that, the orange bird quickly ran into both of them in dismay. His face was blocked by looking down in ninety degrees. They could only see his top feather and beak.

"I should take the blame…" Bubbles anyhow said without any good reasons.

Hal and Matilda stared at the child in confusion. He hadn't done anything wrong, so why would he say that it was his fault?

"Kid, it's the pigs' fault they stole the eggs and that 'Eggsteriod' thingy," Hal corrected his confession. Matilda agreed with him and thought about what was going on with Bubbles.

Bubbles raised up his face in anger, proceeding to take the blame anyway. " **I DON'T CARE IF THAT WAS THE PIG, THE FLOCK OR EVEN THE ICE BIRD'S FAULT!** _ **It's my fault AND IT ALWAYS WILL BE!**_ "

Matilda was shocked in disbelief. Bubbles was innocent and he wasn't even involved at that scene. Hal didn't know what trigger Bubbles' strong feelings anymore.

The kid looked down on the ground again. "How could I be selfish with everything I done with adults like you? I wanted to become a better person but _nope_! My plan didn't really work out pretty well. With all this sugar candies and mischievous behaviour in the past, I can't really put out all the positives of myself at all!"

"Bubbles, you're doing just fine!" Matilda cried out on trying to cheer him up. "One day, when you forget about things, you can start over and have a happy life! You have us and we can help you improve yourself from the past mistakes you made!" She moved herself to hug the kid, only to be pushed back by a sudden crazed Bubbles.

" **I DON'T SEE HOW THAT WORKS!** Even with all your motivation, it won't do great for me!" Bubbles yelled in tears. "Yes, you helped Red prepared himself for the future and Bomb for not being a doormat. But what about a candy addict? I don't think that would work. I already have ongoing nightmares all because I tried to be a positive person. Well, nobody is perfect at all, so I might as well be more of a loser than a cooperative boy."

"Let him be on his own, Matilda," Hal told her," your motivating skills won't do the good on everybody."

"HE'S A _CHILD_!" Matilda explained. "Without my help, he wouldn't be able to work on his own. He need a counsellor."

Bubbles spitted off on the ground, showing his lack of interest on listening to his supposedly mother.

"I'm begging you, woman!" Hal nagged her. "If you don't stop trying to help him, his mood, lifestyle, dreams and even future thinking will get worse. Please."

Matilda shook her head. "No," she rejected, "even if he's unstable, mentally challenged or just giving excuses, he still need a counsellor. He will believe that there's still hope for his chang-"

" _ **SHUT UP!"**_

Matilda immediately looked at Bubbles and it was quite an unexpected response like that. Bubbles just raised up his head as soon as he said that. His eyes were bloodshot red and his clenched his teeth tightly. His top feather went stiff straight and there were already steam coming out of his non-visible ears. He was glaring directly at Matilda face-to-face.

"THAT NEVER WORK, EVEN IF YOUR STORY IS REAL! I'm different from those loved ones of yours, **so DON'T EXPECT ME TO CHANGE LIKE THEM!** You can't really depend on one person, good or not. You can nag me to change my attitude all day, months or even centuries. But I can tell it in my own naked eyes that the effect **WON'T** happen. **EVER!** Do you understand me, mother? I bet you do."

Matilda shook in terror, worried sick about Bubbles' mentality. That actually sounds wrong. She brought herself up and reluctantly accept the choice of leaving him alone. "Okay, child. Have your sweet time."

As they watched Bubbles walking straight to the forest alone, Matilda broke down on thinking something bad to him. "Why would I do that? That's not how it works!" Matilda cried out worryingly.

Hal thought it would really be a good idea to leave him alone, despite the troubles he had for the past 7 years. It did seemed wrong, but they had no other options of helping him.

Bubbles shook his head with regret of his addiction and lack of justice on helping his friends and went to the lake in an attempt to redeem himself. He looked down on the shining water to see the reflection of him. He saw a young child looking distressed and creeped. Everything was beautiful outside. Bubbles just stood there looking down thinking his past would disappear on its own.

He slowly smile, his eyelids closed and said softly in hope for a while, "I wished… that dreams like mine….."

" _ **Should live on like nightmares!"**_

His eyes widen just as a threat came out of nowhere. Everything now looked red and black. The flowers were burned and the butterflies were lied down dead. The water was replaced with lava, erasing the reflection. They all felt real.

Horrified, Bubbles quickly ran away from the so-called lake. This wasn't supposed to happen, he thought. He looked around at fast-paced, but there weren't anybody around. "Help!" he cried out while still shivering in fear. There weren't anybody out there at all.

He moved backwards in self-defense. He wasn't really sure of what was happening here. He didn't know what to do. It just happened randomly. Then, as he kept on moving back without a second thought, he fell into the lava. He was in hell.

Everything went darker as he felt that he sank way too _deep_. He couldn't tell whether this was a nightmare or reality anymore. His mindset finally got warped.

Another dark things came into his mind. The 'dark thing' was a ghoul that looked like Matilda, only with tears coming out like waterfall. " _Bubbles, don't leave me….."_ it said with a ghastly-like voice. It suddenly disappear for a split-second and Bubbles could now feel himself deforming from the void. He felt hopeless now.

In reality, he was saved by Hal from the lake that wasn't actually very deep. Matilda ignored Hal's newfound swimming skills as she was more worried about Bubbles. The child seemed to look unconscious.

"This is **INSANE!** I should have took care of him instead of releasing him!" Matilda screamed in horror.

"I'm sorry, Matilda," Hal apologised but Matilda snapped that out in rage.

"You have to be so 'freaking' sorry for begging me to let go of a 7 year old child!?" Matilda scolded him. "Where's your morality of protecting children!?"

Hal stood up for himself, but did not take the responsibility for almost killing Bubbles. "I know him very well. He's not like any other children we seen. He's an adult."

"You are out of your mind!" Matilda sneered at him in disbelief. "Even if he's acting like an adult, he still needs the safety rules! I know children very well, unlike YOU with your own fantasies."

Hal still didn't know what to believe anymore. Now that the chicken was angry that it was his fault for letting Bubbles drown himself, he couldn't understand Bubbles at all. Despite all this, he felt remorse from the unconscious child.

Hearing a loud horn sound from the cruise ship, Matilda carried Bubbles by herself and told Hal that she would need Tony to heal Bubbles to breathe again. Before she went to that ship, she looked back at Hal in disappointment.

"I think you need to fix that mind of yours," she told her last words before going to the cruise ship.

Hal sighed in sadness. He didn't had a second thought before putting poor Bubbles into coma. He turned to the lake. It still looked shining and beautiful, in spite of an accident.

Going back to his plan of finding his friends, he need to find his youngest childhood friend, a grey falcon in the name of Silver. He remembered that Silver built a treehouse all by herself in a forest not far from Pigs Town. It was funny that while the pigs, especially King Pig, were against the birds for the eggs, Silver was still particularly in good terms with them. Hal still couldn't handle the fact that Silver was raised by the pigs. No wonder Hockey told him that she had rounded-buck teeth when he checked on her.

It didn't take a long journey to find that treehouse of Silver. Looking at the treehouse, Hal described it as a big mansion-like house built on a rather thin tree. Besides, nobody put a unbalanced house on a high thin tree at all. This showed Silver's silly nature that was similar to the Bad Piggies' nature.

"Any birds or pigs up there?" Hal howled with a greet to get an answer.

" _Here!_ "

Hal jumped in surprise. Silver was just behind him.

"How the heck did you just find me, girl dude!?" Hal asked Silver in irritation.

Silver giggled with a goofy sense of humour and replied, "I just knew you were coming to my awesome home! With the power of magic!"

Hal was not surprised to hear that. He already knew magic existed since the Mighty Eagle's time. Then he noticed the decorated phone with her.

"Lemme guess….your favourite game?" Hal asked, judging Silver's experiences with playing her only video game in past times.

"It's a different one this time! A mobile-device game that had in a lot of adorable playable characters and sidekicks! Very fun to play," Silver explained. "It's more awesome and exciting now that I had my favourite fluff-plush in the game so I played it even during exercising time!"

"No wonder I kept seeing Red coming straight to your house," Hal concluded. "Even if he finds you quirky, he still visit your home for one thing."

"True." Silver smirked on the cardinal's passion. "Where's Red, by the way? He's supposed to be here to see me playing the game I told you about."

"Just being busy with Chuck." Hal lied. "These dudes always argue about their own things, don't they?"

Silver heavily sighed on hearing the unknowingly false information Hal gave. "I don't really like the choice of Red becoming a parent. I mean, if he wanted to get a child, I would just tell him to get a girlfriend to mate for an egg. I once met this bird that had the same red colour as him. I think her name is Ruby. Yeah, she looked ALMOST like Red. But, oh well. There's a good reason for her to get left out every single time."

Hal raised his eyebrow. "Never heard of Ruby. Where did ya' find her, amigo?"

"Oh, you know," the grey falcon rolled her eyes, "I can't tell that much, since that isn't relevant to all…..this. Don't ask me more, 'kay?"

"I won't judge you for that," said Hal while still wondering about her.

"Anyways, I have an _announcement_ for you, Hal," Silver told him, mimicking past Terence's voice.

"Dude!" Hal noticed her impression. Silver chuckled on his reaction to her way of sounding like Terence.

"I'll take that as a compliment," Silver appreciated that while still acting. "Anyway, today is the day of visiting Hockey after whatever months we waited for. I don't watch hockey tournaments because well, I don't like hockey."

"Me too," Hal joined in with Silver's dislike. "I'm more into badminton."

"I'm more into Kinect games," she said.

Hal closed his eyes as a facepalm. "That's not sports."

"I got NBTD," Silver responded with a serious face.

"What does that mean?" Hal asked.

"Nothing Better To Do! You haven't read dictionaries yet?" Silver replied with a smug face out of the blue.

"Dude!" Hal yelled again in disappointment for falling into her expression.

"See, Hal?" Silver smirked. "Pigs taught me how to trick people with my own words!"

"Yeah right, this is how you gave Red problems with the pigs when he got temper problems," Hal scolded her. "There isn't any therapist for him now that your so-called 'family' started to steal the eggs!"

"I don't blame them," said Silver. "Red shouldn't have become a father for adopting eggs. Mr. Terence once told him the story of pigs' cruelty with birds for the eggs. Guess what happen? Red refused to believe in that. He said all stories are fake, even with history books. Wow, what have happened to the world?"

"I get your point," Hal nodded, "but that doesn't sound right as well. Do you really want the bird population to go extinct for not reproducing eggs for the future? Red only depend on his children because the number of birds in this island are already less, compared to the number of pigs living in the same island. Geez, woman. I wonder if you even have pity for how hard Red works on saving his eggs every time someone or something did bad things with them. Silver, that's what parents are for."

"Mother Matilda is a parent as well," Silver cut out that point. "I was listening to your conversation with her and then, if you think about it, that part completely conflicts with your point on reproduction. You almost caused that child to go drown in the lake to death. What do you have to say for yourself?"

Hal looked down distressingly. "I thought he would be better on his own. He's smart, after all."

"That's not being intelligent," Silver corrected, "that's called being arrogant. Even Red could tell about that during one of my visits."

Hal could feel his brain hurting from confusion. "Okay, let's not talk about that and visit Hockey."

Meanwhile, in the cruise ship, Matilda was looking outside the window for the view of the ocean while holding a recovered Bubbles who just breathe again from the help of Matilda giving him oxygen from herself. Bubbles, however, seemed to look lost from mental problems.

"Oh, Bubbles," Matilda mumbled worriedly. "You just became insane over your 'nightmare thing' and now you don't even know the differences between real life and dream."

Bubbles gave her a dead stare without saying any word. He couldn't remember what he was doing when he was underwater in the lake.

"I just wanted you to a good, normal child," she cried a little. "But now look at you. I don't even know if you're there anymore."

"...mo-mom….." Bubbles whispered with dried throat. "...sorry….for what I…..did…..tee...you….."

Matilda carried him just as he was about to fall. "Hang on, Bubbles! I'm going to get Tony's help to recover your condition!"

Bubbles looked up in an exhausted way. "...where….we…..at?" he slowly asked. Somehow, his grammar was so bad that he couldn't even use the right words.

"We're going to Finland," Matilda replied, "he usually lived in Helsinki, but because I haven't been to that country, I'm not very sure."

"Yes," Bubbles said.

"Yes what?" Matilda questioned his response.

"Yes, he did lived in Helsinki, just in one of the cabins," Bubbles said with clear words.

"You don't even know Tony," Matilda said while starting to get creeps.

"He looked like Terence, but with fluffy details and light blue colour," Bubbles said happily.

Matilda's eyes widen. Since when did he even guess his details correctly? Most importantly, how did he know that when the appearance wasn't mentioned in her story just before she fainted again?

The bell rang as the announcement mentioned that they were now at Finland. Matilda carried Bubbles tightly as she went down the stairs to the city of Finland. She headed to the train station to go to Helsinki. Bubbles sneezed from the his cold that he got from the lake. Fortunately, there weren't anybody around them hearing the sound of his sneeze.

The sound of the upcoming modern train came on board. Matilda, while still carrying Bubbles like a baby, went inside the train. The interior had air-conditioner, which made Bubbles' cold even worse. Matilda tried her best to take care of him as she took a seat. Well, most of the seats were empty anyway.

It was a quiet place to wait for destination. Looking outside for sky view and need of peace fit Matilda's personality as well as doing her best as a responsible mother. A saddened oriole looked up at her with a blank face. He doesn't seem to understand what she was doing to him, even if it was for doing the right thing. As Matilda checked on how Bubbles was feeling, she saw something strange within him.

"...why…...you…..do this…...to….me….?" The child asked in a low tone.

"Bubbles, you may not hear me but," Matilda admitted her care for him, "I loved you like my own son, just like the Blues. I just need Tony to help you recover."

"..."

Bubbles slowly closed his eyes without saying any words from now on. He doesn't seem to smile nor frown. Strange, but calm.

Matilda looked outside the window with her thoughts on a different subject. "Hal, why would you let him do that? I trusted you as an adult even when you left on your own from the Flock."

The train had reached to Helsinki 45 minutes later. Matilda hurriedly got out to find Tony's house while Bubbles slept on Matilda's head. Matilda asked the citizens to see if there was a cabin. Nobody knew where he lived. Bubbles suddenly woke up again to tell the answer.

"It's just at the hill on the right side, mother."

Matilda shivered in fear from Bubbles' voice. He was supposedly to rest. Nonetheless, she did what he told her so. It was, in fact, the correct way as she saw the big brown cabin with a lake by her left. She stepped on the doormat and knocked the door. As the door creaked, Matilda moved back a little for safety reasons. The person who opened the door was the right person. He's a big blue cardinal who looked exactly like Teren- Welp. Bubbles got his appearance right.

"Matilda?" Tony got taken aback by surprise. "How did you find me? Terence never send you the address, did he?"

Matilda shook her head. "I got a help from a sick child."

Tony became confused. "How is that even possible!? Is he psychic or what!?"

"To be honest, I'm not sure how that happen as well," said Matilda. "But the most important thing is that I'm finally here to seek help from you."

"Okay then." Tony then examine Bubbles' face. He looked extremely tired and unwell.

"What happened to that orange child you holding, miss?" Tony asked.

"He had happened to drown, thanks to one of the former students," Matilda replied.

"Red?" Tony guessed the answer. "Boy, if only he had a therapist for anger management, none of this would have happened."

"Not Red, Hal!" Matilda corrected him in urgent.

"Whoa, calm down, Matilda!" said Tony. "Not everyone have a good memory of remembering who did this and that."

" **I AM CALM!** " Matilda objected, then seriously calm down from deep breath. "Sorry, I was just in an emergency."

"Sorry if I made you like that," Tony apologised. "Where's my manners when I saw your child feeling unwell. Do not worry, I have medicine inside the cabin."

"Fine, fine!" Matilda shouted hurriedly. "Just let me go inside already!"

"Geez," Tony remarked. "Old motherly ladies these days."

" _ **WHAT DID YOU SAY!?"**_ An enraged chicken heard his comment. "Hmph, you and Terence are the same!"

Tony giggled as soon as he closed the door. "Ah, you made me proud of myself."

Matilda looked back at Tony like a cheetah. "Don't think about this again! Especially when it comes to distressing moments."

Tony raised his eyebrow. "Distressing 'moments'. You mean the eggs stolen again?"

"Not just the déjà vu," Matilda continued, "your cousins and their Flock are GONE! Without me!"

Tony got shocked upon hearing the news. He couldn't stand on knowing about his family being harmed.

"God! How the heck did that just happened!?" Tony yelled in terror as he twitched his eyelids a little. "No wonder you're so angry about it. You just don't want me to know about that."

Matilda looked unsatisfied on Tony's reaction. She expected something better than that. "So…..you helping that ill child I brought?"

"Yes," Tony said as he walked to the cabinet to find the medicine for Bubbles while Matilda sat on the couch with the child lying beside her.

As Tony started working on the suitable medicine for Bubbles, Matilda decided to talk to him in a different topic.

"I wanted to tell you something," Matilda told him. "It's about Terence."

"What about my twin cousin?" Tony waited for her response. "Okay, hold on. Before you restart your conversation, do you need a cup of coffee?"

"No," Matilda declined, "I'm staying here for a short while only."

"Preparing a medicine may stay a longer time," Tony reminded her, "are you sure you don't want the coffee that I kept in the fridge just in case a visitor comes in?"

"A coffee kept in the fridge for a visitor?" Matilda wondered. "How did you know I came here?"

"Lucky, I guess," Tony shrugged.

"Okay then, yes, please?" Matilda accepted his offer.

"I just kept the coffee a few minutes ago," Tony said as he opened the fridge to get a coffee and gave it to Matilda, "make yourself at home."

Matilda glared at him. "2 minutes and you started saying that?"

"I was distracted," Tony said honestly. "And besides, I never had a visitor before, other than Terence. Well, it's still a surprise to see you here now. Where's your beautiful pink eyes? I wanted to see them."

"They're hidden by my eye contacts," Matilda replied. "If you prefer me with pink eyes, I can just take them off!"

"Now I wonder how you didn't get sore eyes from them when you sleep," Tony said as he saw Matilda taking her fake eye contacts off to reveal pink eyes, "and you still look beautiful with your real eyes to this day."

"I have to blend in with black-eye coloured birds in Piggy Island," Matilda replied, feeling better without wearing eye contacts and put them in a solution. "Otherwise, people may see me as a foreigner who just came to their island recently. Really like, I got the comments from some people before I decided to get myself the eye contacts."

Matilda went to continue her previous conversation when Tony came back to prepare the medicine. Before she could do that, she took a sip of coffee Tony gave. It reminds her of Red drinking hot chocolate a lot during one Christmas time.

"As I was saying, your cousin Terence is a rather odd person. I mean, he attempted to become deaf and I found it quite strange. Is it because he knew that the 'pigs stealing eggs' thing was going to happen. It actually happened and maybe that's why when he came back, he seems more quiet than ever. But before I went to Hal's home, guess what? Terence spoke with the same voice as ever! Isn't it because his plan failed? Or he simply lied?"

Tony nodded in acknowledgement. "You know what? Here's one thing you don't know about Terence. Almost everyone knew that you can understand someone deep inside. But you never understand Terence at one point. He can only share his problems to people he CARED for. And by 'people he cared for', I mean his family. This is considered a family secret, so you should not know why he did that."

"I'll respect that," Matilda said, stopping the intended conversation.

The medicine was already finished when their talk ended. Tony poured the medicine on the teaspoon and commanded Matilda to open Bubbles' beak. "Okay, orange! Say 'ah'."

Bubbles woke up in a similar way to what he did a few minutes ago. He still looked tired.

"Ah," Bubbles followed his order, getting the spoon to land on his tongue for him to shallow the curing liquid.

"He will recover in about an hour for now," Tony told Matilda. "Give him a good rest."

"Okay, Tony," Matilda obeyed, tucking Bubbles into a blanket that Tony gave recently.

"Where are you going now that you're done being here?" He asked.

"I'm going to visit Golden Island, my original home," Matilda replied.

"Wow, I actually heard of that before!" Tony exclaimed with excitement all of a sudden. "I never had the chance to visit there…"

"Do you want to come along?" Matilda gave him an offer to join.

"Sure, why not?" Tony accepted. "I've been isolated in this cabin for like how long which only God knows. I'll also take care of Bubbles in case something went wrong with him."

Matilda smiled. "It's good to reunite with you, Tony. Hopefully, you will be able to enjoy your trip because Golden Island is found to be one of the most beautiful places!"

"Hey, Matilda," Tony said in concern. "What about your eye contacts?"

"I need to give my eyelids a rest," she said. "They're already safe in my solution."

Matilda and Tony went along with each other on the way of going to a train that would lead to a different cruise ship. It was indeed the great refreshing memories recalled from old friends. But that was still one thing that need to be fix. Bubbles. He's still not in a good state.

Will he change?

 **End of Chapter 6**


	8. Chapter 7 - Travelling (Part 2)

**Angry Birds Reunite - Chapter 7 - Travelling (Part 2)**

In a forested area, Hal and Silver were walking through the crowded plant area that she considered as a 'shortcut' to the Hockey Tournament. Hal never experienced on stepping on twigs, mushrooms and plants before and he definitely hated it. He wasn't a type of a jungle person, or even so, a wild person. Looking at the grey falcon holding her chuckles in her beak, Hal glared at her for thinking that the seemingly dangerous pathway that might possibly have snakes or scorpions was the easiest road trip.

"Hehe, don't feel down!" Silver cheered Hal up. "Once you get used to them, it won't be a challenge at all!"

"Uh-huh," Hal nodded in sarcasm, "there's already an alternative pathway safer than this. Why did you choose this?"

Silver shrugged it off without acknowledging Hal's harsh feelings. She just wandered off in her journey happily, ignoring his agony. "We're almost there!" She called Hal as they approached the river that had electric eels underwater, much to Hal's response of screaming in irritation.

"OH MY GOD, SILVER!" Hal screeched. "Why can't you **TAKE THE OTHER PATH!?** "

Silver felt unadmired by his misunderstanding on her. "That path is for wimps who likes safety. I wanted this to be filled with adventure, drama and _action._ C'mon Hal! Bear with me."

Hal could still feel his head boiling from her ignorance as she went near the river to examine closer. Silver saw the electric eels hissing at her just by its behaviour. Seeing the other side of the island from a distance, there weren't any stones or boats that could let them pass through the dangerous river.

"I have an idea!" Silver exclaimed with a solution. "We can swim through the river with pain."

" _You,_ " Hal moaned as he stared at her with his one bloodshot eyeball. He couldn't really bear with Silver's stupidity.

"Remember, this isn't real life!" Silver reminded him. "We don't pass away! We'll be alive even after swimming in this electrifying river and look good as new after 2 seconds."

Hal cringed from listening to her logic. "I wished you will be scared of electric **bills** , _estúpido_." (estúpido means stupid in Spanish)

But Silver somehow ignored his wishing as she instantly pulled Hal's beak without safety warning and jumped into the dangerous river, leaving bubbles floating on the water to pop, revealing screams of agony.

Meanwhile, in a cruise ship, Tony was just walking around to see a cruise dining, swimming pool, hot tubs, ballrooms and anything glamourous to him. He was astonished to see something expensive and was happy to be in a ship. Because swimming was one of his favourite things to do in life, he attempted to go to the pool section, only to be dragged away by a foiled chicken still carrying a sick child.

"You can't just slack off your job on taking care of Bubbles," Matilda scolded Tony.

"Isn't that supposed to be the other way round?" Tony asked.

"HOLD HIM!" Matilda ordered him in a rush manner.

"Ooookay?" Tony said just as he hold the oriole to carry him.

"Thanks!" Matilda appreciated his help as she quickly rush off to the crowded place, leaving a confused Tony not knowing what he should do with Bubbles.

Tony looked at an motionless Bubbles looking at nothing in a dead mood. He felt that he need to feed him with healthy food.

"Okay, kid," said Tony with confidence, "I'll find some nice food for you."

"..." the child groaned.

Tony went into a fine dining restaurant filled with fancy tables with white sheets, well-suited pigs and food on the corners not really organised well.

As he check on the food, he found a nice, juicy and fresh purple grapes. He took it out of the basket to feed Bubbles. He put it into his beak but Bubbles reacted negatively.

"Pfft! Bleh! Fruits!?" Bubbles yelled in disgust.

Tony shushed him, knowing that the restaurant was supposed to have a quiet atmosphere and that it shouldn't have a sudden fight in a place where everybody should be respected and have good manners.

"This is a high-class restaurant," Tony scolded him. "No screaming allowed."

"Why do you have to give me fruits….?" Bubbles asked angrily.

"Fruits are good for your health," Tony explained. "If you don't eat them, you won't be able to recover well."

Bubbles glared at him stubbornly. "Fine, I'll eat them…."

"Watch your behaviour. This is not how you talk to adults," Tony warned him.

"Excuse me, sir," a pig dressed as a waiter walked towards him to remind him, "we do not allow a child-scolding moment in this restaurant."

"Sorry, mister," Tony apologised. "Didn't mean to do this. I was just trying to feed him grapes."

"Oh, your child is hungry?" The waiter wondered. "Oh, don't worry. I'll give him a pack of grapes for free, if you don't mind."

"I don't mind," Tony nodded happily. "Thank you very much."

"My pleasure," the waiter bowed as he walked off to the kitchen door.

"Wow, I met yet another bird being so nice to pigs. Just like me," Bubbles smirked.

"You're lucky we didn't get kicked off by the manager," Tony stared at him in disappointment.

"Where's Mother Matilda?" Bubbles asked. "I wanted her to carry me like a baby."

"She's probably off for a Number 2," Tony replied. "You are a kindergartener, not a toddler. Learn to grow up, will ya'?"

The waiter returned back from a kitchen with grapes packed in a bag. "Here you go, sir," he offered him, "free of charge."

"Thank you again, mister," Tony appreciated him. "Let's go out to somewhere, kid," he said to Bubbles as he held him to exit the restaurant.

"Eat the grape now, kid," Tony ordered him as he picked up one from a pack to feed Bubbles' beak.

Bubbles reluctantly nodded and ate the grape. He chewed it very slowly as he felt that the way it taste was 'not right' to his diet. He swallowed it and thought of something about the after-taste.

"I didn't know they're good….." Bubbles regretted on his action. "I never knew about this before…."

"All fruits are good," Tony convinced him. "But you should not eat apples too much."

"...I…" Bubbles mumbled. "...I want to do something…"

"Go ahead," Tony allowed him.

"I want one of your suggestions to make me happy," Bubbles told him for advice.

"Swimming is a refreshing thing to keep your spirits up," Tony suggested gleefully. "It's okay if you're not good at swimming. I can hold you in a pool."

"What's a pool?" Bubbles asked.

"It's like a limited but non-salty version of the ocean," Tony explained. "With swimming, it is a type of exercise, but you'll get used to it."

"Cool!" Bubbles exclaimed with excitement.

"Whoa, I can see that you're excited, buddy," Tony said. "C'mon, let's go to the Swimming Pool section."

As they went to the Swimming Pool section outdoors, they looked around to see that quite a few pigs enjoying themselves. Half of them were in a pool and the rest were lying on a beach chair for relaxation.

"I wanna go in there, Mister Blue Guy," Bubbles begged him.

"You're sick, kiddie," Tony told him of his condition. "How about I carry you so you can enjoy the breeze like I'm the boat?"

"Sure," Bubble lost his sense of joy a bit.

Tony walked gently to the pool, making sure his strength and heavy weight would not sink the ship. Unlike any other people who would simply jump into the pool, he alternatively took the ladder that leads into the pool itself. As he was in a pool, he swam to a place where Bubbles was located so he could go on board.

"Hop on, buddy!" Tony called out.

Bubbles did at what he told him to do. He jumped onto Tony's big fluffy body. He actually felt contented from the messy feathers and became comfortable with sitting on it.

Meanwhile, back to Piggy Island, Hal and Silver got out of the dangerous river looking burned as a result of being electrocuted by eels. Hal gasped in need of air while Silver looked delighted from experiencing pain.

"Woohoo! That was fun!" Silver exclaimed in joy.

"...Dude, like, you need to be more serious with your silly adventures," Hal told her.

"I'll make sure that never happen again," Silver winked at Hal, "because after all, we finally arrived to Hockey Tournament just in time."

"I will tell Hockey that I regret being friends with an oblivious goof," Hal said.

"That's hurtful," said a disturbed Silver.

"Alright, I won't be bad with you," Hal promised, although he was still irritated by her.

As they went into the Hockey Tournament, they were stopped by a pig guard. "You cannot enter the Tournament. The players are doing their practice," the guard told the birds.

"We are here to meet that fluffy bird," Hal and Silver said. "Can we meet him?"

"Sorry, you can't," the guard rejected their request.

" _It's okay. Let them be."_

The guard pig turned back, only to see a white fluffy bird with a brown hockey winter hat on his head.

"Hi, Hockey," Hal greeted, being surprised to meet his childhood friend again after 12 years.

"Hey Silver…. Hal!?" Hockey jumped in the same emotions. He ran towards Hal, pushing off the guard by accident, to hug him.

"Long time no see!" He greeted gleefully. "How are you, dude?"

"I'm good, thank you."

Hockey looked at Hal's and Silver's body. They looked black.

"Whoa, what just happened?" Hockey asked.

"Long story," Silver told him.

"Actually, the story is short," Hal snapped off her. "But that's not important right now. We need to talk."

"Okay," Hockey accepted. "We can talk at the stadium if you want."

"I just want a place peace and quiet, dude," said Hal.

At the stadium, they were sitting on the chairs meant for the audience to sit when they were watching the tournament going on. While the players were busy practicing their moves on the hockey, the three birds were having a conversation.

"So what have you been doing ever since we graduated?" Hockey asked his old friends.

"I have been playing my banjo and relaxing in my home," Hal replied. "I have a normal life."

"Me too," Silver joined. "Every weekdays, I exercised. When I have a break, I'll just play with my video game collection on a Playstation 3 and 4."

"What were you playing recently?" Hockey asked Silver.

"It's a PS4 game that is a homage to horror movies," Silver replied. "It's an interactive movie game."

"So how about you, dude? What have you been doing?" Hal asked Hockey.

"I have been practicing my dream game for ages," Hockey answered. "I had won medals and trophies since then. I have fans of mine. Even Miss Matilda came here to congratulate me."

"Ah, that's good to hear," Hal nodded.

"So, how is it going with Red and Chuck?" Hockey asked. "Shouldn't they be here with you guys?"

"Oh, they're just busy," Silver answered.

"How did you know, pal?" Hockey raised his eyebrow.

"Hal told me abo-" Silver said but Hal covered her beak.

"We need to talk, dude," Hal said in anxiety.

"Wait…." Hockey noticed something wasn't right. "What's wrong, Hal?"

SIlver's delightful self had just disappeared. "What the heck, Hal? Did I say something wrong?"

"Nothing, gal!" Hal yelled exasperatedly. "I just want to talk to my favourite pal in private…"

" _Private?_ " Silver asked in a sneaky way. "What'd ya' hiding, man? You have secrets I wanna listen?"

"Hey, leave him alone," Hockey told Silver. "If he have a reason to have a private conversation, then you might as well go wander around the places before we can call you back."

"You men are the same!" Silver exclaimed in frustration as she went back to her seat.

Hockey looked back at Hal in curiousity. "What is it, Hal?"

Hal held back his beak tensely. He didn't want Silver to know all of this.

"Well," said Hal, "I have bad news for you."

"Lay it to me, then," Hockey listened patiently.

"We need to go to the bathroom first," Hal told him.

"That's fine by me," Hockey said, still thinking about what was going on in Hal's head.

The male birds exited the stadium as they went straight to the men's restroom. But Hal didn't feel comfortable with the presence of pigs that were either washing their non-existent hands or doing their business on a toilet.

"We need a safer place," Hal whispered to Hockey worryingly.

"I know where that place is," Hockey claimed.

"Where?"

"The ladies' restroom."

Hal's eyes widened in dismay as he could feel himself cursing words inside his mind.

Hockey groaned on noticing his unawareness. "Outside the Hockey Tournament. You're stupider than my kid self," he remarkably mocked him.

"And you're better than that idiotic falcon," Hal commented back.

"I thought you are better with ladies," Hockey recalled. "I don't think it's you talking."

"Oooooh! I don't know what you talking about, dude…" Hal sarcastically said with his eyes twitching in exhaustion.

"Okay, I won't tease you, Hal," Hockey assured him. "Let's just go outside for a fresh air."

As they went outside the Tournament, they sat down on the medium-sized rock beside the river.

"Tell me something about it," Hockey told Hal.

"Red's Flock, excluding Matilda and Bubbles, disappeared into a black hole," Hal went on,

" **WHAT!?** " Hockey screamed in horror.

"I was just messing around," Hal chuckled. "They actually went into a wormhole and we don't have any resources to go there."

"That's pretty funny to hear, actually," Hockey remarked. "You're saying that they went into a place that have no air or gravity. Is that what you are saying?"

"We call that 'outer-space', dude. But yeah."

"So why didn't you bring Silver to this?" Hockey asked.

Hal became silent for a while. "Hockey….," he mumbled, "I don't want Silver to end up like Bubbles…."

Hockey's eyes widen in seriousness. "What happened to him?"

"He was probably having confusion in his head," Hal guessed. "He took blame for the incident he wasn't even involved in and he ended up attempting suicide."

"WHAT THE **HECK**!?" Hockey exclaimed in utter shock. "How could he do that?"

"I have no idea," Hal said. "I don't have proof for his actions, but I have a feeling that Silver would be similar."

"Silver is not like that, believe it or not," Hockey assured him.

"If this happened to a candy addict, it might as well happen to a video game addict."

"But she once helped the Flock get their eggs back from the flying ship!"

"This journey is _different_ and she will not go with us!"

"Didn't she adapt with dangerous things before? The outer-space is probably like that after all," Hockey argued.

Hal sighed. This was just way too frustrating to convince.

"Okay, how about this?" said Hal. "She tortured me in a electrifying river."

"That's why you're black!?" Hockey exclaimed in surprise. "But Silver never hurt her friends!"

"Explain her oblivious goofy nature then," Hal waited with impatience. "I thought she would be disciplined better than when she was 6, but her 'goofy logic' is just so ridiculous. I rather have a short-tempered bird than a stupid gabby falcon."

Silence went again. This time, Hockey was thinking about it.

"You know what, Hal? We won't bring Silver to this."

"Good. Let's go to where the Flock were before. I appreciate your help, dude."

"Wait. We need to tell Silver to get back to her house. We can't leave her alone in the stadium."

"Oh….right," Hal said with shame.

They went back to the stadium, only to find Silver talking to the coach pig. They were seen laughing and enjoying their time. Yup, she stays the same.

"Heh, after a long journey of helping the Flock get the eggs back, you're still friendly with pigs," remarked Hockey as he walked towards the falcon.

Silver turned around to see them returned. "Huh. Took you some time of a conversation with Hal. What's up?"

"We need to get you back home," Hockey told Silver calmly.

"At this time?" Silver asked in confusion. "So I got into the Tournament for nothing?"

"Sorry, gurl. It's something that you don't need to know."

Silver's lips trembled into disappointment. All of her efforts were wasted into a dump.

"What have I been doing in my life?" She mumbled furiously, which Hal noticed from her expression.

"It's for your own good, amigo," Hal said. "Apology for the cut-out."

Silver looked back at Hal with her eye twitching in confusion and anger.

"You will regret this, Spanish bird. I will not forget this," she said as she stormed off the stadium without even letting Hockey and Hal follow her back.

"That was harsh, Hal," Hockey pointed out.

"What did I do?" Hal talked back after snapping out from relief. "She overreacted. She should know better."

Back at the cruise ship, Tony went on swimming while being careful of having a kid on his backside. Bubbles hanged on the feather as he watched the beautiful water around him. He could see young pigs splashing water onto each other and the others were floating on water with googles.

"Whoa, how come Mother Matilda never brought me to a pool?" Bubbles wondered to himself. "It's full of joy and excitement!"

But just as he thought to himself, a moment of happiness was broken all of a sudden as he heard a yell from someone else. It somehow sounded like someone was mad.

" _ **BUBBLES! TONY! GET BACK HERE!"**_

Tony stopped swimming as he quickly became shocked from hearing a voice coming from a chicken and she did not sound happy at all. He looked back and saw an enraged Matilda standing by the interior door. She did not look fine as if she came back from the restroom and found out that someone she was supposed to protect went missing.

"Tony! Did I tell you not to slack off!?" Matilda asked in rage.

"I only want him to enjoy the water, that's all!" Tony replied, becoming more nervous.

"If those pigs get infected, who will take the blame!?" She yelled back.

Tony did not say anything for a moment. He just wanted Bubbles to be happy.

"Kid, let's go back to the land," he told Bubbles.

"No!" Bubbles rejected. "I wanted you to stay here!"

"If she tells us to come back, we have to come back."

"I don't want to!" Bubbles argued back. "How can she not let me do whatever I want while you can!?"

"Bubbles, I have to tell you to come back because you are not fully recovered!" Matilda explained as she walked to the side of the pool.

"I don't care if I'm sick!" Bubbles cried in sadness. "I just want to have some fun!"

"But you need to rest first!" Matilda kept on advising him.

"Why would you do this to me!?"

"Because I cared about you! I loved you like my own son!"

"No, you don't," Bubbles insisted while he was confused about her.

"But…. I told you stories….how can you not know about it…..?" Matilda became shocked and cried a little.

"I don't remember it at all…." Bubbles answered honestly in a harsh way.

As Matilda was about to convince him, he already released himself from holding on the feather and fall of Tony's body.

"Bubbles, **NO!** " Matilda broke down in tears, but he already landed into the water and sink.

Tony looked down in horror. He did not expect Bubbles to do it on purpose.

"I'll save him!" Tony shouted as he dived into the water to get Bubbles back.

Matilda cried on seeing that. "Dear god! He have lost his mind!"

Underwater, Tony went deeper as he was trying to get a sinking bird. Bubbles was almost drowning to death once again, but to Tony's despair. Tony tried too hard to get Bubbles back to his body until they reach the deepest part of the swimming pool.

" _Please don't die!"_ Tony thought as he finally held on Bubbles again and went back to the corner of the pool as fast as possible.

As Tony saved Bubbles from drowning and put him on the land beside Matilda, he got out of the pool to perform a CPR on Bubbles by pumping his chest, give out his oxygen into his beak and hear his chest to make sure he was breathing. Matilda still sobbed from Bubbles' attempt on suicide by the pool as she watched Tony trying to make him breathe again.

"Please make him alive, God," Matilda prayed with tears coming out of her pink eyes.

Tony repeated his CPR on Bubbles. As he done it on the 4th time, he heard a cough. Bubbles had finally gotten up alive again. Matilda hugged Bubbles in both shock and sadness.

"Thank God, you're alive," Matilda said in relief. "Never do that again. You made me sick worried."

Tony brought out his medicine from home to feed on Bubbles. After Bubbles took the medicine, Tony came to Matilda for an apology.

"I'm terribly sorry, Miss Matilda," Tony apologised, still in regret. "I shouldn't have done that."

"Darn right, you do," Matilda denied. "He almost killed himself. You should have not give him trouble if he had the chance."

"Hey, I make terrible decisions in life, okay?" said Tony. "But you have to at least be thankful that I saved your kid. Your overprotective self and worries made you more sensitive with people that TRIED to make up things for the kid."

Matilda said nothing as she walked back to the interior mumbling herself in great disappointment. Tony sighed on seeing her walk away like that without any response as he checked on Bubbles to see how he was doing.

"I'm glad you are alive, kiddie," said Tony. "I would have gotten worse if you didn't survive."

"I'm glad that fried chicken is gone now," a dark tone came out of a voice.

Tony became silent. Did a youngster suddenly hit puberty?

"What did you say?" He asked.

"I highly doubt you wouldn't even know what I'm saying," Bubbles told him, his voice remaining in a state.

"Kid, are you trying to creep me out?" Tony retorted. "Because of you, I had gotten myself into this mess!"

"Oh, so are you blaming me?" Bubbles returned with a smirk. "Did you really think that your actions would give benefit?"

"I only wanted to please children….." Tony said quietly.

"Aww, that's a pity….. If only Matilda encourage you to let me swim, I'll be a happy guy!" He acted cheerfully, but his voice tone doesn't changed at all.

"Except that never happened at all… she scolded me because I was the one who caused all of this," Tony reflected.

"See? So who's the blame of this whole mess?" Bubbles questioned him.

"...What about you? Drowning yourself in a swimming pool was all your doing."

"I did that to test you, big blue guy,"

"Why the heck did you **DO** THAT?"

Bubbles smirked widely. This time, it was far from being cunning.

"Tell me…..Cousin of Mister Headmaster Terence…...do you remember that little incident of three children in troubled state?"

Tony's eyes widen. He had almost forgotten about that day.

"Don't pretend, Mister Tony," the little bird continued, "you have heard the screamings of the little children. A bird crying on a tall tree that nobody could ever reach, a bird having an injured beak from the impact of falling down from a tall tree thanks to his condition of lack of balancing and a bird responsible for that accident and he got what he got from making those birds jump up on a tree; the colour of his fear. He was lucky he got his original colour back, but sadly, it will affect him to a place very, very far. Do you remember those birdies?"

"...I don't know what you are talking about, kid….."

" _ **LIAR!"**_

Sounds of his outburst pushed off the calm atmosphere like a beastly roar.

"I know everything about it, Tony. I can see how that incident affected you for the past 12 years. You think you can cheer up every children you met. There was your little cousin who just screamed at an innocent joker after he got down from a tree with his so-called gift. Over a dumb joke that can be easily passed off. But no, he just made that little girl cry. What a great guy, right? _Pathetic._ "

"Stop it," Tony commended Bubbles, but he continues on talking with pleasure.

"And then there was a bird who got his beak injured from the high fall. Pity? Well, apparently he had happened to not trust that same joker years later despite his sympathy for the crying of a little girl. Over the fact that she might end up like me? Or the fact that she made her friends go in danger? He must be very sensitive."

"Silver was only young!" Tony yelled at Bubbles in blind rage. "Kids don't know anything like _you_ so leave them out of this!"

"I'm a kid? Don't bluff! I'm different from them, so I can know better and talk to you about stupid things kids do when they grow up," Bubbles told him while still smirking.

"You are a special snowflake, huh!?" Tony noticed his words. "You are not as special as my winter-time cabin!"

"Why are you screaming as if you don't know what will happen? Matilda scolded you for letting me go in danger and here you are, being so blind that you thought that you are talking to a real adult. Wait until she finds you and smack you for this whole conversation."

"I thought you said you weren't a kid. You aren't an adult either, right?"

Bubbles chuckled again. He knew this was coming to him.

"Oh, you're right. I am neither a child nor an adult. I'm just a person who toyed around with troubled birds."

Matilda came back to the door and saw Tony shaking in motion. She raised her eyebrow in disinterest.

"Tony, we are about to leave. Pack your things and bring Bubbles to me. Make sure you don't anything stupid ever again. And I don't want Bubbles to get into danger again so keep your eye on him."

Tony nodded slowly. "Understood, Matilda."

Bubbles looked up at the sky, smiling about his mischief on mocking Tony.

"Heh. _This is going to be fun._ "

 **End of Chapter 7**


End file.
